TEN  THOUSAND  MILES 
IN  A  YACHT 


f 


Ten  Thousand  Miles 
in  a  Yacht 


ROUND   THE   WEST    INDIES   AND 
UP   THE    AMAZON 


BY 

RICHARD   ARTHUR 


INTRODUCTION  BY 

WILLIAM    M.     IVINS 


NEW   YORK 

E.    P.    DUTTON   &   COMPANY 

31   WEST    TWENTY-THIRD    STREET 
1906 


PRESERVATION 

COPY  ADDED 
ORIGINAL  TO  BE 

RETAINED 


OCT  1  2  1992 


COPYRIGHT,  1906,  BY 
RICHARD    ARTHUR 

Registered  at  Stationers1  Hall,  London ,  England 


SCHLUETER 
PRINTING 
COM  PANY 
NEWYORK 


Library 


Bancroft  Library 

University  of  CeMornla 

WITHDRAWN 


DEDICATION 

TO   COMMODORE   E.    C.    BENEDICT 

Permit  me,  my  dear  Commodore,  to  inscribe  to  you 
this  record  of  the  unique  and  memorable  voyage 
which  your  indefatigable  love  of  the  sea  prompted  you 
to  conceive,  and  your  inveterate  hospitality  inspired 
you  to  carry  out  with  such  munificent  provision  for 
the  comfort  and  pleasure  of  your  fortunate  guests. 

In  turning  over  the  leaves  of  this  volume  from  time 
to  time,  may  you,  and  those  who  accompanied  you  on 
the  cruise,  be  impelled  by  some  suggestion  in  the  pic- 
tures, or  in  a  phrase  of  the  text  here  and  there,  to  fare 
forth  again,  in  imagination  (and  with  something  of  the 
delight  of  the  actual  journey)  to  where  you  took  us  in 
the  "  Virginia  "  last  winter — across  the  tropical,  sap- 
phire seas,  along  the  palm-fringed,  Caribbean  island- 
coasts,  and  upon  the  broad  bosom  of  the  mighty, 
marvellous  Amazon. 

R.  A. 

New  York,  January  6th,   1906. 


CONTENTS 


Dedication          .......          7 

List  of  Illustrations       .          .          .          .          .          .11 

Introduction       .          .          .          .          .          .          .15 

The  Origin  of  the  Voyage    .          .          .          .          •        33 

The  Tail-end  of  a  Storm 37 

The  Bermuda  Islands 41 

The  Lesser  Antilles 50 

Dominica  .          .          .          .          .          .51 

Martinique — Mont  Pelee — The  Ruins  of  St.  Pierre       63 
Santa  Lucia — The  Pitons       .          .          .          -73 
Barbados    .......        76 

Down  to  the  Equator  .          .          .          .          .87 

A  Month  on  the  Amazon     .          .          .          .          .89 

The  Mouth  of  the  Great  River        .          .          .89 

The  City  of  Para 101 

A  Thousand  Mile  Journey  Upstream  .  ,  1 09 
A  City  in  the  Wilderness  .  .  .  .130 
The  Amazonian  Indians  .  .  .  .142 
A  Hunting  Excursion  .  .  .  .  .149 
Plant  and  Animal  Life  of  the  Amazon  Valley  .  154 
Turning  Homeward  .  .  .  .  .164 
Agriculture  on  the  Amazon  .  .  .  .167 

Back  to  Para 173 

Rubber  Gathering  .  .  .  .  .176 
Good-bye  to  the  Amazon  .  .  .  .184 

9 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Death  and  Suicide  in  the  Menagerie         .  .  .188 

Along  the  Coast  of  South  America           .  .  .190 

A  True  Fish  Story 191 

Trinidad    .          .          .          .          .  .  .196 

Venezuela            .          .          .          .  .  .213 

Cura9ao    .          .          .          .          .  .  .216 

A  Record  Roll — and  Others           .          .  .  .219 

Jamaica     .          .          .          ,          .          .  .  .221 

The  Dry  Tortugas 228 

A  Long  Detour  for  Some  Fishing     .  .  .228 

A  Feat  in  Navigation    .          .          .  .  .229 

A  Day's  Sport    .          .          .          .  .  .231 

The  Fifty-Pound  Fish  We  Didn't  Catch  .  .232 

Havana,  Cuba  .           .          .          .          .  .  .240 

Nassau,  New  Providence      .          .          .  .  .245 

Back  to  "Little  Old  New  York"           .  .  .250 


10 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


Commodore  E.  C.  Benedict 4 

Palms  of  the  Amazon  Region 15 

Chart  of  the  Virginia's  Course 31 

The  Steam  Yacht  Virginia 32 

The  Coast  of  Dominica 33 

Officers,  Stewards  and  Mascottes         .        .         .         .34 

Part  of  the  Crew 35 

High  Seas  on  the  Way  to  Bermuda    .        .        .        -37 

A  Derelict 39 

The  Coral  Strand  of  Bermuda 40 

Caribbean  Natives  Diving  for  Coins     .        .        .        .41 

Bermudan  Cottages 43 

Coral  Reefs,  Bermuda 45 

St.  George's,  Bermuda 47 

A  typical  Bermudan  Villa 48 

Royal  Palms,  Bermuda 49 

The  Virginia  in  Hamilton  Harbor,  Bermuda       .         .     50 

Roseau,  Dominica 51 

Street  Scene,  Roseau,  Dominica 54 

A  Mountain  Lake,  Dominica 56 

In  the  Forest,  Dominica        ......     57 

On  the  Hillside,  Dominica 60 

The  Devastated  Hills  of  Martinique  .  .  .  .62 
The  Ruins  of  St.  Pierre  and  Mont  Pele"e  ...  65 

Ruins,  St.  Pierre,  Martinique 69 

Fort  de  France,  Martinique 71 

Martinique  Types 72 

The  Pitons,  Santa  Lucia 73 

Coast-line,  Barbados 75 

Rural  Scene,  Barbados 76 

In  the  Woods  of  the  Interior,  Barbados  .  .  .77 
The  Wharf,  Bridgetown,  Barbados  .  .  .  .79 
Barbados  Types  I,  II,  III  .  .  .  .  80,  81,  85 
The  Main  Street,  Bridgetown,  Barbados  .  .82 

ii 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Street  Scene,  Bridgetown,  Barbados  ....  83 
Native  Dwellings,  Bridgetown,  Barbados  ...  84 

A  Sugar-cane  Field,  Barbados 85 

The  Virginia  at  Barbados — Cleaning  Ship        .        .      86 

Mouths  of  the  Amazon 88 

A  Rubber-Gatherer's  Dwelling  .        .         ...       89 

On  the  Lower  Amazon 90 

High-River  Season  on  the  Lower  Amazon  .  ,  91 
Pilot  Boat  and  Cutter — Mouth  of  the  Amazon  .  93 

The  River-Front.  Para 94 

A  Para  Avenue 95 

Craft  of  the  Lower  Amazon,  at  Para    ....      97 

The  Modern  Section,  Para 98 

A  Business  Centre,  Para      ......      99 

A  Typical  Para  Dwelling 101 

Outskirts  of  Para 103 

The  Old  Section,  Para 104 

A  North  Brazilian  Church 105 

Types  of  North  Brazilian  Beauty — I,  II     .         .      1 06,  107 

The  Municipal  Park,  Para 108 

Off  to  Visit  the  Governor 109 

Amazon  Pilots  and  Our  First  Officer  .  .  .  no 
In  "The  Narrows,"  Lower  Amazon  .  .  .  .  in 
The  Virginia  in  "The  Narrows"  .  .  .  .114 

Warping  Up  Stream 115 

An  Island  on  Its  Last  Legs  .  .  .  .  ,  116 
Chart  of  Part  of  the  Lower  Amazon  .  .  .117 
A  River  Steamer  Among  the  Islands  .  .  118 

An  Amazonian  Village 119 

A  Ranch  on  a  Tributary  of  the  Amazon  .        .        .120 

The  Beach,  Santare"m 121 

A  Trading  Station 122 

Forest  near  the  River 123 

A  Thousand  Miles  from  the  Sea  .  .  .  .126 
The  Victoria  Regia  of  the  Amazon  Lagoons  .  .127 

A  Street  in  Para 129 

Manaos  Harbor  at  "High  River"     .         .        .         .130 

12 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAOB 

A  By-Way  near  Manaos 131 

The  Main  Avenue,  Manaos 132 

The  Market,  Manaos 133 

Livers  of  the  Simple  Life 136 

A  Beauty  Spot  near  Manaos 137 

At  the  Regatta,  Manaos 139 

Classing  and  Packing  Rubber,  Manaos      .        .        .141 

Indians  of  the  Rio  Branco 142 

Amazon  Indian  Chiefs  in  Full  Dress          .        .        .     143 

An  Amazon  Indian  Chief 145 

An  Amazon  Eve 146 

A  Young  Brave 147 

A  Paradise  for  Alligators 151 

River  or  Forest — Which  Shall  Reign?  .  .  .152 
Getting  Provisions  Over  the  Rapids  of  the  Rio  Branco  1 53 
Part  of  the  Yacht's  Menagerie  .  .  .  .  154,  161 
The  Amazonian  Jungle  .  .  .  .  .  .157 

The  Turtle  Market,  Manaos 163 

A  Village  near  Iquitos        .        .        .        .        .        .164 

The  Rio  Branco — A  Tributary  of  a  Tributary          .     165 

A  Trading  Centre 166 

A  Gift  Boatload  of  Plantation  Products  .  .  .168 
Navigation  on  the  Small  Rivers  .  .  .  .169 
Disembarking  on  the  Edge  of  the  Jungle  .  .  171 
Negotiating  the  Rapids  of  the  Upper  Tapaj6s  .  172 
Instituting  the  Wireless  Telegraph  on  the  Amazon  173 
"The  Forest  Pushes  Right  Into  the  River"  .  .174 
Commodore  Benedict  Assisting  at  Rubber-Smoking 

Operations 175 

The  Hevea  Rubber  Tree 176 

Tapping  a  Rubber  Tree 177 

Bringing  Home  the  Day's  Yield  of  Rubber  Milk     .     177 

Overlapped  Rubber  Trees 180 

Smoking  Rubber 181 

Headquarters  of  Rubber  Ranches  .  .  .  .182 
"Biscuits"  of  Smoked  Rubber 183 

13 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


Carrying  Rubber  to  the  River  for  Shipment     .        .184 

A  Provision  Store 185 

Headquarters  of  a  Rubber  Ranch  at  "High  River"  186 

The  Coast  of  Trinidad 193 

Trinidad  Coolie  Types — I,  II,  III         .        .     196,  207,  209 

A  Palm  Grove,  Trinidad 197 

Near  Port  of  Spain,  Trinidad 198 

Rope  Tree  (i),  Bamboo  Grove  (2),  Trinidad        .        .199 

In  Port  of  Spain,  Trinidad 201 

A  West  Indian  Mulatto       ......  202 

The  Blue  Basin  Waterfall,  Trinidad  .        .        .203 

A  Cacao  Plantation,  Trinidad 204 

A  Cacao  Tree 205 

Drying  Cacao  Beans,  Trinidad 206 

A  Trinidad  Coolie  Fakir     ......  210 

In  the  Interior,  Trinidad 211 

La  Guayra  Harbor,  Venezuela    .        .        .        .        .213 

A  Street  in  Caracas,  Venezuela          ....  214 

On  the  Great  Lagoon,  Curasao 215 

Willemstad  Residences,  Curacao         ....  216 

Willemstad  Harbor,  Curacao 217 

A  Plantation  in  the  Blue  Mountains,  Jamaica  .        .  223 

The  End  of  the  Road,  Blue  Mountains,  Jamaica       .  226 

Among  the  Bahama  Keys 230 

The  Instigator  of  a  Commotion          ....  236 

Tobacco  Planting,  Cuba 240 

Havana,  Cuba 241 

The  Plaza  de  Arma,  Havana 243 

The  Prado,  Havana 244 

Nassau  Harbor,  New  Providence        ....  245 

Grape-Fruit  Trees,  Nassau 246 

A  Village  Street,  near  Nassau 247 

A  Coral  Road,  near  Nassau 248 

Shipping  a  Wave,  on  the  Way  from  Nassau     .        .  249 
The  Heroine  of  this  Story — on  the  Day  of  the  Re- 
turn Home 251 

14 


INTRODUCTION 

T  is  a  great  pleas- 
ure  to   write   a 
preface   for  Mr.  Ar- 
thur's    little     book, 

which  records  one  of  the  rarest  incidents  in  the 
lives  of  several  of  a  party  of  close  friends,  with 
some  of  whom  the  shadows  are  already  begin- 
ning to  grow  long. 

The  old  traveller  will  admit  that,  while  there 

15 


INTRODUCTION 

are  other  places  in  the  world  as  beautiful  as  the 
islands  of  the  Caribbean,  there  are,  nevertheless, 
none  more  beautiful,  and  the  man  who  has  had 
a  vision  of  Dominica  and  Martinique  and  Santa 
Lucia  will  carry  with  him  to  his  grave  a  memory 
of  the  glory  of  the  divine  revelation  in  nature 
which  will  be  a  constant  charm  in  hours  of  hap- 
piness and  an  endless  refreshment  in  days  of 
gloom. 

In  the  cruise  of  the  Virginia,  these  islands, 
however,  were  taken  en  passant,  going  and  com- 
ing, and  were  not  the  objective.  Moreover,  they 
have  been  so  frequently  described,  they  are  so 
well  known  to  so  many,  and  some  of  the  litera- 
ture concerning  them  is  of  such  peculiar  charm, 
that  unless  one  approaches  the  subject  with  an 
altogether  exceptional  knowledge,  or  a  very 
broad  sympathy  for  place  and  people,  as  well  as 
poetic  insight  and  an  appreciative  touch  in  de- 
scription, it  were  better  that  he  should  add  not 
a  word  to  the  existing  literature.  But  in  these 
pages,  Mr.  Arthur  records  the  circumstances  of 
a  quite  unusual  experience  ;  so  that  his  book  has 

16 


INTRODUCTION 

an  excellent  raison  d'&tre.  Moreover,  he  has  not 
attempted  to  rival  former  writers  by  going  into 
detailed  and  intimate  description,  but  has  wisely 
confined  himself  to  relating  the  incidents  of 
the  voyage  and  to  giving  rapid,  impressionistic 
little  pictures  of  the  places  touched  at  by  the 
yacht. 

To  him  who  has  visited  the  Lesser  Antilles, 
and  even  more  seriously  to  him  who  has  not,  I 
recommend  the  reading  of  Lafcadio  Hearn's 
book  on  Martinique  and  the  other  islands.  It 
was  in  this  that  he  first  showed  that  wonderful 
capacity  for  putting  atmosphere  and  color  into 
words  that  subsequently  made  his  books  on 
Japan  so  altogether  unique.  To  anyone  who  is 
interested  in  Mr.  Arthur's  little  story,  I  should 
say,  if  it  stimulates  you  to  a  desire  for  more, 
turn  to  Lafcadio  Hearn,  and  all  who  do  so  will, 
I  know,  thank  me  for  the  suggestion,  even 
though  they  know  the  book  already,  for  it  may 
be  read  many  times  and  always  with  more  won- 
der than  before  at  the  rare  skill  of  the  author. 

But,  as  I  have  said,  these  islands  in  our  Amer- 

17 


INTRODUCTION 

ican  Mediterranean  were  taken  in  passage, 
whereas  the  Amazon  was  the  object  of  the  ad- 
venturous longing  of  a  party,  all  but  two  of 
whom  (who  already  knew  it  well)  visited  it  with 
a  yearning  for  the  sight  of  El  Dorado  and  of 
the  yellow  "  Sweet  Water  Sea,"  such  as  was  felt 
in  England  and  in  Spain  and  in  Italy  and  in 
France  hundreds  of  years  ago,  when  the  discov- 
eries of  Pinzon  and  Cabral  and  Vespucci  first 
came  within  the  ken  of  men,  and  when  the  world 
of  culture  and  of  progress,  led  thereto  by  Amer- 
icus  himself,  ventured  the  fine  guess  that  Brazil 
was  the  seat  of  Paradise  and  the  Valley  of  the 
Amazon  the  very  Garden  of  Eden. 

From  the  day  that  the  child  first  begins  the 
study  of  geography  and  learns  of  the  Great 
River,  his  mind  is  stirred  by  imaginings  of  this, 
one  of  the  greatest  of  the  world's  wonders, 
and  then,  as  he  grows  in  years,  there  comes  to 
him  in  his  reading  and  in  story  strange  tales 
from  this  far-away  land,  unlike  any  other, 
where  the  men  and  the  birds  and  the  beasts, 
the  skies  and  the  stars,  the  waters  and  the 

18 


INTRODUCTION 

flowers  and  the  trees,  are  all  unlike  any  that  he 
has  known.  Is  it  strange  then  that  in  childhood 
lads  should  dream  of  a  visit  to,  and  that  old 
men  should  hope  to  see,  before  the  burden  of 
life  be  lifted,  the  country  that  Raleigh  knew  as 
El  Dorado,  that  Americus  claimed  was  the  true 
Garden  of  Eden,  and  that  Captain  Mayne  Reid 
and  Jules  Verne  pictured  as  a  land  of  romance, 
whose  story,  like  Macbeth,  had  murdered  sleep, 
but  so  differently  and  so  delightfully  ? 

How  vividly  there  comes  back  to  me  now  the 
memory  of  that  summer  day  in  the  middle  '6o's, 
when  the  one  object  of  my  boyish  worship,  Pro- 
fessor C.  Fred  Hartt,  came  home  from  his 
Amazon  journey  and  asked  me  to  help  him  un- 
pack and  arrange  his  specimens  !  With  what 
joy  I  gave  up  the  first  half  of  my  vacation  ! 
Then,  as  a  lad,  I  caught  the  yearning  and  fever 
for  the  Great  River  as  Hartt  had  had  it  from 
Agassiz  and  Agassiz  from  Spix  and  Martius, 
almost  as  if  it  had  come  to  me  by  direct  descent 
— and  it  is  still  unsatisfied,  for  never  yet  have  I 
been  able,  in  all  of  my  four  visits,  to  do  there 

19 


INTRODUCTION 

what  I  have  wanted  to  do  and  what  I  still  want 
to  do,  and  I  have  saudades,  sweet  longings  for 
and  memories  of  it,  which  will  never  be  satisfied 
now,  for  the  years  creep  on  and  the  heart  of  the 
wilderness  is  no  place  for  those  who  have  passed 
the  floodtide  of  life.  As  for  my  master,  he  died 
pursuing  the  charm  of  Brazil,  as  brave  a  mind, 
as  true  a  soul,  as  gentle  a  heart  as  science  or 
chivalry  has  known. 

The  Virginia  was  a  bare  thirty  days  on 
the  Great  River — long  enough  to  realize  the 
physical  aspect  of  the  country  of  the  Amazonian 
basin,  with  its  new  and  strange  flora,  of  some, 
at  least  of  the  fauna,  of  the  people  and  of  the 
cities.  It  was  long  enough  for  a  superficial 
glance,  long  enough  to  taste  and  enjoy  the  hos- 
pitality of  the  warm-hearted  and  open-handed 
Brazilians,  of  these  people  of  simple  taste  and 
exquisite  gentleness  and  sympathy,  but  not  long 
enough  to  get  into  real  touch  with  their  lives, 
their  language,  their  literature,  their  politics, 
their  national  aspirations,  their  customs,  their 
folk  lore  or  their  civilization.  That  is  only  pos- 

20 


INTRODUCTION 

sible  to  one  who  knows  their  tongue,  who  knows 
their  history,  who  knows  their  literature,  and 
who  has  not  only  lived  long  among  them,  but 
lived  sympathetically  and  with  an  insatiable 
curiosity.  This  is  the  reason  why  we  have  in 
English  no  book  or  books  through  which  the 
reader  may  become  intimately  acquainted  with 
Brazil  and  the  Brazilians,  and,  above  all,  with 
those  of  the  Amazon  Valley.  The  only  English 
books  of  any  value  that  we  have  were  written 
by  scientific  men  or  mere  curious  travellers,  not 
one  of  whom,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  knew  thor- 
oughly the  tongue,  the  history,  the  literature  or 
the  people.  While  some  of  these  books,  like 
those  of  Bates  and  Wallace  and  Mrs.  Agassiz, 
have  real  value,  they  are  of  little  human  inter- 
est, and  I  know  of  no  greater  desideratum  in 
the  way  of  a  book  than  just  such  a  volume  as 
the  very  brilliant  Oliveiro  de  Lima,  late  Brazil- 
ian Minister  to  the  United  States,  has  written 
of  our  own  country — which  is  as  thorough  and 
as  fine  in  its  way  as  even  Mr.  Bryce's  "  American 
Commonwealth." 

21 


INTRODUCTION 

It  thus  happens  that  the  casual  visitor  to  the 
Amazon  has  no  way  to  prepare  himself  for  a 
perfectly  appreciative  understanding  of  what  he 
is  about  to  see,  and  so  must  come  away  with  a 
memory  only  of  that  which  is  patent  to  the 
eye — wide  open,  to  be  sure,  but,  nevertheless, 
necessarily  far  from  clairvoyant. 

Instead  of  a  preface  I  might  write  a  book,  and 
I  am  strongly  tempted  to  do  so,  telling  of  the 
things  Brazilian  that  I  have  come  to  know 
through  residence  and  travel  and  study  ;  but  in 
that  case  I  should  change  places  with  Mr. 
Arthur  and  ask  him  to  permit  me  to  use  his 
sketch  as  a  preface.  Such,  however,  is  not  the 
design  of  this  little  volume  ;  yet  I  hope  one  of 
these  days  to  find  time  in  a  very  busy  life  to  say 
something  concerning  Brazil  which  may  be  of 
value  and,  I  hope,  of  charm,  to  Northern 
readers. 

But  I  may  now  say  this  to  those  who  may 
hereafter  visit  the  Great  River  and  into  whose 
hands  this  book  may  fall :  that  if  they  come 
away  from  it  only  with  a  knowledge  of  the  two 

22 


INTRODUCTION 

great  cities  of  Para  and  Manaos,  they  will  leave 
it  with  no  more  substantial  knowledge  than  that 
of  the  European  traveller  who  should  judge  of 
the  United  States  by  a  few  days  spent  at  the 
Waldorf  and  at  the  Auditorium  Annex,  with 
Niagara  Falls  seen  in  passing.  The  two 
Amazonian  cities  have  many  of  the  aspects  of 
most  recent  modernity,  although  in  their  out- 
skirts and  suburbs  may  be  seen  some  slight 
indications  of  the  manner  of  life  lived  by  the 
people  of  the  country  on  the  river  banks,  on  the 
edges  of  the  igarapts,  on  the  little  interior 
clearings,  or  in  the  quaint  villages  of  only  a  few 
hundred  souls,  or  in  the  heart  of  the  forest  on 
the  seringals.  In  point  of  culture,  habit  of  life, 
family  organization  and  tradition,  religious  prac- 
tice and  religious  legend,  in  the  simple  matter  of 
clothing,  of  the  organization  of  the  home,  of  the 
table,  and  of  the  life  of  the  day  and  of  the  night, 
these  non-city  dwellers  who  constitute  the  race 
are  so  unlike  ourselves  that  it  is  doubtful  even 
if  they  and  we  should  ever  be  able  thoroughly 
to  understand  each  other. 

23 


INTRODUCTION 

To  begin  with,  the  race  is  practically  indigen- 
ous, Indian  crossed  by  Negro  and  Portuguese, 
due  to  the  fact  that  during  the  first  two  hundred 
years  of  colonial  life  there  came  few  women  from 
abroad,  and  the  race  was  begotten  of  the  cross- 
ing of  European  fathers  with  Indian  or  Negro 
mothers,  and  then  the  re-crossing  of  these  again, 
until  the  classification  of  the  several  amalgams 
has  come  to  be  one  of  the  crucial  problems  of 
the  ethnologist. 

The  same  causes  which  produced  the  race 
have  produced  the  religion  of  the  race,  the  poly- 
theistic Catholicism,  reaching  back  into 
primitive  tradition  and  indigenous  mythology, 
and  so  unlike  our  own  notions  as  not  to  be 
recognizable  by  us  as  Christianity  at  all,  except 
so  far  as  we  recognize  a  certain  ceremonial 
which  has  been  inherited  from  the  Latin 
Church  and  which,  with  the  peculiar  phase  that 
Brazilian  Catholicism  has  taken  on,  is  not  now 
even  disapproved  at  Rome.  I  said  polytheism, 
because  outside  of  the  great  cities,  and  even 
among  the  common  people  inside  these  cities, 

24 


INTRODUCTION 

the  people  have  no  conception  of  a  triune  God. 
They  never  think  in  terms  of  one  omniscient 
and  omnipotent,  supreme  God,  much  less  in 
terms  of  such  a  God  expressed  in  the  form  of 
triunity.  Their  gods  are  as  numerous  as  those 
of  Olympus,  but  they  are  the  saints;  and  the 
most  childish,  the  most  charming  and  always 
the  most  credulous  saint  worship  is  that  of  the 
illiterate  native  in  this  land  where  it  is  always 
afternoon,  who  is  ever  thoughtless  of  to-morrow 
and  whose  care  for  life  is  no  more  serious  than 
was  that  of  Father  Adam  in  Paradise.  It  is  a 
lazy  world  and  an  easy  world,  and  the  people — 
always,  be  it  understood,  outside  of  the  great 
cities — live  and  think  and  worship  more  like  chil- 
dren than  like  men. 

Within  the  cities,  life  is  very  different. 
Among  the  rich,  the  modern  spirit  is  everywhere 
manifest.  Here  the  men  generally,  having 
abandoned  Catholicism,  have  become  Positiv- 
ists,  and  the  religion  is  left  to  the  frades  and 
the  women  and  the  poorer  classes.  It  suffices 
admirably  for  the  life  of  the  race,  because  it  is  a 

25 


INTRODUCTION 

religion  of  cheerfulness,  not  begotten  of  logic 
or  contention,  but  corresponding  very  perfectly 
to  the  psychological  need  of  the  people. 

Outside  of  the  great  cities,  it  may  be  said  that 
the  meaning  of  the  word  "  politics  "  is  unknown. 
Both  States,  Par£  and  Amazonas,  enjoy  a  con- 
stitutional form  of  government,  but  the  elector- 
ate is  small,  and  of  this  small  electorate  only  a 
minor  part  take  any  active  interest  in  the  matter 
of  government,  and  it  so  happens  that  the  poli- 
cies of  both  States  fall,  by  natural  process,  into 
the  hands  of  those  best  equipped  to  understand 
and  direct  them,  that  is  to  say,  a  few  of  the 
leading  merchants  and  the  members  of  the 
learned  professions,  the  lawyers  and  the  doctors 
and  the  engineers.  It  is  due  to  this  fact,  and 
to  the  fact  that  the  real  political  masters  of  the 
country  are  so  in  advance  of  the  ultimate  con- 
stituency, that  we  so  frequently  see  in  the  great 
cities  evidence  of  an  attempt  to  secure  a  civili- 
zation for  which  the  people  themselves  are  not 
yet  ready.  But  if  a  fault,  this  is  certainly  one 
in  the  right  and  not  in  the  wrong  direction. 

26 


INTRODUCTION 

The  Brazilian  race  as  a  whole  has  come  to  be 
quite  a  new  and  distinct  people  in  the  world. 
It  is  quite  as  well  marked  as,  let  me  say,  the 
Spanish  or  the  French  or  the  Italian,  and,  I 
may  even  add,  the  English.  Our  people  of  the 
United  States  have  as  yet  by  no  means  been 
brought  into  such  a  degree  of  synthetic  racial 
unity  as  the  people  of  Brazil,  but  the  Brazilians 
are  infinitely  more  unlike  the  Portuguese,  al- 
though they  speak  their  tongue,  than  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  taken  as  a  whole,  are  un- 
like the  English,  for  the  predominant  strain  is 
Indian  and  Negro,  while  the  predominant  cul- 
ture is  Portuguese,  chastened  by  the  more  prim- 
itive culture  of  the  other  races.  This  remark, 
however,  has  no  relation  to  the  intellectual  elite 
of  the  great  cities,  such  as  Rio  Janeiro,  Sao 
Paulo,  Bahia,  Pernambuco,  Para,  and  Manaos, 
who  are  citizens  of  the  world,  abreast  of  the 
most  modern  thought. 

And  so  Brazil  possesses  a  literature,  based 
upon  racial  tradition,  but  woven  into  shape  of 
poem  or  story,  wholly  unlike  any  other  litera- 

27 


INTRODUCTION 

ture  in  Christendom,  and  which,  to  those  who 
know  it,  is  as  beautiful  as  any  other  whatsoever, 
even  if  not  as  rich.  It  is  not  Portuguese,  that 
is  to  say,  the  Portuguese  of  Lisbon.  The  Braz- 
ilian tongue,  borrowing  largely  from  Guarani, 
Tupi,  and  the  Negro  dialects,  with  the  accents 
and  the  phrasing  sharpened  here  and  softened 
there,  has  grown  to  be  as  unlike  the  Portuguese 
of  Portugal  as  the  speech  of  the  Alabama  back- 
woodsman is  unlike  that  of  London  or  Edin- 
burgh. 

But  one  who  has  learned  the  tongue,  who  has 
sung  its  native  strains,  who  has  dreamt  under  the 
great  trees  and  the  blue  skies,  in  the  verse  of 
some  of  the  rarest  of  poets,  who  has  followed 
the  story  of  desperate  adventure  and  of  local 
chivalry,  who  has  sat  at  night  under  the  stars 
that  seem  infinitely  farther  away  than  in  our 
northern  sky,  or  under  the  Indian  thatch,  and 
heard  the  tales  of  the  countryside, — to  such  a 
one  there  comes  a  feeling,  once  he  has  departed 
from  the  land  of  beauty  and  of  dreams,  that  can 
be  likened  only  to  the  feeling  of  him  who 

28 


INTRODUCTION 

"  hears  the  East  a-calling,"  calling  endlessly 
for  his  return.  So  the  South  calls  to  the  men 
who  know  it,  and  in  our  hearts  there  is  borne 
an  insatiable  homesickness  for  the  great  Palm 
Land. 


NEW  YORK,  January\6th,  1906.  ] 


29 


THE  COURSE  OF  THE  "VIRGINIA" 


': 


THE     ORIGIN     OF    THE     VOYAGE 


the  stanch  and  graceful  2OO-foot 
steam  yacht  Virginia  cut  her  way 
through  the  thick  ice-floes  that  choked  New 
York  harbor  on  the  morning  of  January  3Oth, 
1905,  and  moored  at  the  New  York  Yacht 
Club's  Twenty-third  street  station,  everybody 
who  knew  whither  she  had  sailed  nearly  three 
months  before,  and  whence  she  had  just  re- 
turned, admitted  that  she  had  made  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  cruises  ever  accomplished  by 
a  yacht.  She  had  steamed  just  short  of  ten 
thousand  miles,  had  penetrated  into  the  heart  of 


33 


TEN   THOUSAND  MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

the  Brazilian  wilderness,  and  had  visited  eleven 
other  lands,  besides,  on  her  way  thither  and 
thence. 

This  uncommon  cruise  had  its  origin  in  a 
rivalry  of  friendly  courtesies.  An  eminent  New 
York  lawyer,  Mr.  W.  M.  Ivins,  who  has  for 
many  years  been  a  close  student  of  South 
American  history,  economics,  and  literature, 


OFFICERS    STEWARDS  AND  MASCOTTES 
34 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES  IN  A  YACHT 


PART  OF  THE  CREW 


and  who  also  represents  very  important  com- 
mercial interests  in  Brazil,  was  one  day  talking 
with  a  prominent  New  York  financier  and 
yachtsman,  Commodore  E.  C.  Benedict,  about 
a  trip  he,  Mr.  Ivins,  was  going  to  make  up  the 
Amazon. 

"  I  envy  you,"  said  the  yachtsman.  "  Ever 
since  I  was  a  boy  I  have  had  an  intense  desire 
to  see  that  country." 

35 


TEN    THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

"  Come  with  me,  then,"  urged  the  lawyer. 

"  By  the  Great  Horn  Spoon,"  replied  the 
yachtsman,  with  sudden  decision,  "  I  will ;  but 
on  one  condition — that  you  allow  me  to  come 
as  your  host.  I  understand  the  hotels  in  North- 
ern Brazil  are  abominable,  so  I'll  bring  along  a 
hotel  that  we  can  live  in  with  comfort." 

He  explained  that  he  would  charter  a  yacht 
—his  own  not  being  quite  suitable  for  such  a 
voyage — and  make  up  a  party.  As  nearly  as 
possible,  dates  and  an  itinerary  were  fixed  there 
and  then,  and  this  was  how  it  came  about  that, 
on  the  afternoon  of  November  i5th,  the  Vir- 
ginia, with  a  party  of  ten  men  and  a  lad,  and  a 
crew  of  thirty-three  officers  and  men,  steamed 
out  of  New  York  harbor  and  turned  her  bow 
toward  the  equator. 

The  party  consisted  of  the  genial  host,  Com- 
modore E.  C.  Benedict,  Mr.  W.  M.  Ivins,  Mr. 
E.  M.  Backus,  Mr.  C.  Keep,  Mr.  L.  Hunting- 
ton,  Mr.  J.  Howard  Ford,  Mr.  Russell  Colt,  Mr. 
Charles  Hastings,  Dr.  J.  Gaines,  Master  M. 
Truesdale,  and  the  writer  of  this  chronicle. 

36 


THE   TAIL-END    OF   A   STORM 

TJ^OR  two  or  three  days  just  prior  to  our  setting 
out,  a  violent  storm  had  swept  the  West 
Coast  of  the  Atlantic  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
to  Labrador,  and  though  the  wind  had  now 
swung  round  to  the  North,  a  heavy  sea  was  still 
running. 

The   seaworthiness   of   the   Virginia  was   at 

37 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

once  put  to  a  fair  test,  and  she  behaved  so  well 
that  we  immediately  gained  a  confidence  in  her 
that  we  never  lost  during  the  entire  cruise.  We 
afterwards  found  that  though,  on  account  of  her 
light  draft  and  her  extensive  deck  houses,  she 
had  a  decided  predilection  for  rolling  consider- 
ably in  light  seas,  she  always  conducted  herself 
gallantly  and  soberly  in  rough  water,  and  never 
bumped  or  jerked,  or  raced  her  propeller. 

We  ran  before  the  wind  at  about  twelve  knots, 
reaching  the  Bermudas  in  less  than  two  and  a 
half  days  without  any  incident  worthy  of  note, 
except  the  encounter,  right  in  our  path,  of  a 
derelict  lumber  schooner,  waterlogged  and  aban- 
doned. Fortunately,  we  came  across  her  just 
before  dark.  Had  it  been  a  couple  of  hours 
later,  we  might  very  well  have  rammed  her  amid- 
ships, as  she  lay  exactly  at  right  angles  across 
the  line  of  our  course,  and  though  in  her  condi- 
tion such  a  ramming  would  not  have  mattered 
very  much  to  her,  it  would  have  been  quite  an 
unpleasant  episode  for  us,  and  would  further 
have  annoyed  us,  inasmuch  as  it  would  have 

38 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


given  a  color  of  truth  to  the  absurd  report,  pub- 
lished by  a  New  York  newspaper  two  days  after 


A    DERELICT 

our  departure,  that   our  yacht  was  lost  with  all 
hands. 

We  crept  up  within  a  few  yards  of  the  dere- 
lict and  made  sure  that  she  was  abandoned.  The 
lumber  in  her  holds  had  swollen  and  her  decks 
and  sides  had  burst  open.  Her  boats  had  gone, 

39 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

so  her  crew  had  evidently  escaped.  Shortly 
after,  we  overtook  and  spoke  another  sailing 
vessel,  crippled  by  the  storm  and  laboring  along 
with  difficulty,  but  able  to  take  care  of  herself 
and  make  port. 


THE  CORAL  STRAND 
OF  BERMUDA 


40 


THE    BERMUDA    ISLANDS 

arrived  off  the  coast  of  Bermuda  in 
the  night,  and,  as  the  entry  to  the 
Harbor  of  Hamilton  is  long  and  difficult,  we 
anchored  under  the  lee  of  the  Eastern  shore 
until  daylight.  We  then  picked  up  a  pilot  and 
were  duly  guided  through  the  coral  reefs  into 
the  pretty  land-locked  harbor. 

We  spent  a  couple  of  very  pleasant  days,  driv- 
ing and  roaming  about  this  unique  and  delight- 
ful little  country,  enjoying  its  natural  beauties, 
its  splendid  seascapes  and  calm,  picturesque, 
undulating  landscapes.  Only  a  few  hours  be- 
fore we  had  been  none  too  warm  in  heavy  win- 
ter clothes  ;  now  we  donned  the  lightest  summer 
garments  and  revelled  in  the  luxury  of  diving 

41 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

from  the  yacht  into  the  clear,  tepid  waters  of  the 
harbor. 

The  Bermudas,  viewed  from  the  ocean  as  one 
approaches  them,  are  not  very  impressive,  and 
the  visitor  is  therefore  all  the  more  delighted 
with  the  richness  and  variety  of  vegetation  and 
scenery  which,  upon  closer  acquaintance,  they 
reveal  to  him. 

The  islands  are  of  coral  formation,  and  the 
land  is  low-lying,  presenting  to  the  observer  out 
on  the  ocean  a  flat  and  bare  appearance.  But 
as  you  pass  through  the  shoals  and  into  the 
harbor,  innumerable  wooded  valleys  and  bays 
and  hillsides  covered  with  thick-foliaged  shrubs 
and  trees,  disclose  themselves,  and  everywhere 
brilliant-white  little  coralline  houses  stand  out 
gayly  from  the  dark  green  of  the  vegetation, 
making  a  most  pleasing  picture. 

The  largest  island  is  nowhere  more  than  three 
miles  in  breadth,  and  the  highest  hill  is  only  250 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  The  ocean,  or 
some  arm  of  it,  is  therefore  visible  from  almost 
every  hillock,  and  the  water  is  generally  tossed 

42 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


into  picturesque  whitecaps  by  the  strong,  per- 
sistent breezes  which  give  the  sea  round  the 
islands  the  same  reputation  it  must  have  had 


BERMUDAN   COTTAGES 


among  mariners  when  Shakespeare   alluded   to 
"  the  still-vex'd  Bermoothes." 

But  it  is  the  sea  that  is  vexed,  not  the  islands 
themselves.  They,  indeed,  are  as  dreamy-peace- 
ful as  weary  brain  and  nerves  could  wish.  Just 
a  century  ago,  the  Irish  poet  Tom  Moore,  who 
resided  here  during  the  year  1804,  wrote  a  poem 
to  express  his  delight  with  this  little  isolated 

43 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

land.  Some  of  his  lines  will  serve  to  express 
our  feelings  on  landing  there  quite  as  well  as 
they  did  his  :— 

" When  the  zephyrs  bland 

Floated  our  bark  to  this  enchanted  land — 
These  leafy  isles  upon  the  ocean  thrown, 
Like  studs  of  emerald  o'er  a  silver  zone, — 
Not  all  the  charm  that  ethnic  fancy  gave 
To  blessed  arbors  o'er  the  western  wave, 
Could  make  a  dream  more  soothing  or  sublime." 

The  group  of  islands  composing  the  Bermudas 
is  twenty-five  miles  in  length,  and  consists  of  one 
hundred  islands,  besides  a  considerable  number 
of  islets,  many  of  which  are  submerged  at  high 
tide.  The  main  islands  are  all  connected  by 
bridges. 

Science  has  not  yet  been  able  definitely  to  de- 
termine what  the  geological  formation  is  which 
constitutes  the  basis  of  the  coral  superstructure 
of  the  Bermudas  ;  but  the  isolation  of  the  islands 
in  the  wastes  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean  sug- 
gests the  idea  of  mountain  peaks,  the  relic  of 
some  prehistoric  continent,  peaks  which,  though 
submerged,  were  yet  near  enough  to  the  surface 

44 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

to  enable  the  little  coral  insects  to  build  their 
wonderwork  upon  them.  The  peaks,  it  is  sup- 
posed, were  then  forced  out  of  the  water  by  some 
upheaval,  then  again  submerged,  when  fresh 


CORAL  REEFS,  BERMUDA 

layers  of  coral  were  built  over  the  decomposed 
strata  of  former  constructions. 

The  Bermudas  used  to  be  a  great  fruit-pro- 
ducing country,  but  of  late  years  fruit  has  been 
neglected,  and  the  soil  has  been  mainly  given 
up  to  the  raising  of  potatoes,  onions,  tomatoes 
and  Easter  lilies.  "The  land  of  the  lily  and  the 

45 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

rose"  is  also  a  land  of  innumerable  other  flowers. 
The  passion-flower,  the  violet,  the  narcissus,  the 
Bourgainvillia  creeper,  the  wistaria,  the  gera- 
nium, the  heliotrope  and  the  verbena  spring  up 
everywhere,  and  the  morning  glory  and  many 
other  flowers  bloom  all  the  year  round. 

This  little  country  has  a  population  of  about 
18,000,  of  which  number  only  6,500  are  Whites. 

Our  visit,  we  were  told,  was  too  early  to  enable 
us  to  see  the  country  at  its  best  and  gayest,  the 
social  season  not  having  begun,  and  the  vegeta- 
tion not  being  in  its  most  attractive  condition. 
There  is  little  difference  here,  however,  between 
summer  and  winter.  Though  only  forty-eight 
hours'  sail  from  New  York,  the  islands  really 
enjoy  a  perpetual  summer.  Thanks  to  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Gulf  Stream,  the  climate  is  con- 
tinually sub-tropical,  and  yet  the  temperature  is 
rarely  high  enough  to  be  oppressive.  The  ther- 
mometer does  not  go  above  86,  and  the  nights 
are  cool  and  breezy.  The  air  is  pure  and  suave, 
and  malaria  is  unknown. 

The  Bermudan  houses  are  of  simple  but  pic- 

46 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

turesque  construction.  They  are  dry  and  com- 
fortable, being  built  of  white  coralline  stone 
which  is  cut  from  quarries  with  saws,  and  they 
are  whitewashed,  roofs  and  all.  Surrounded  as 


ST.  GEORGE'S,   BERMUDA 

they  mostly   are   by  the  evergreen   foliage   of 
numerous  species  of  small  palms,  by  the  ubiquit- 
ous cedar,  and  by  flowers  and  ornamental  shrubs 
of  rich  foliage,  they  present  a  cool  and  very  in 
viting   appearance.      A  group  of   the   best    of 

47 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


A  TYPICAL  BERMUDAN  VILLA 


them,  seen  from  a  distance,  suggests  the  idea  of 
so  many  little  white  temples  built  to  the  honor 
and  glory  of  some  benignant  Diana,  some  white- 
stoled  Goddess  of  Purity  and  Health. 

After  spending  two  days  in  this  lotos-land, 
this  country  "  where  it  seemed  always  after- 
noon," we  were  piloted  out  to  sea  and  proceeded 
on  our  way  South,  carrying  with  us  memories 
of  a  thin  line  of  island-coast,  of  water  breaking 
white  upon  coral  reefs,  of  wood-fringed  interior 

48 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

bays,    of   wholesome-looking   little    plantations 
situated  in  pleasant,  shallow  vales,  and  of  snow- 


ROYAL  PALMS,  BERMUDA 

white  bungalows  and  villas  grouped  on  low  hills 
or  nestling  singly  amid  the  greenness  of  thick 
foliage  and  the  gay,  many-colored  blooms  of  in- 
numerable shrubs  and  trees  and  creepers. 

49 


THE    LESSER  ANTILLES 


^j  r^wo-AND-A-HALF  days  of  pleasant  uneventful 
sailing  brought  us  in  sight  of  the  first  of 
the  Lesser  Antilles,  the  bare  little  island  of 
Sombrero,  and  soon  after  we  saw  the  first  of  the 
Leeward  group,  Anguilla.  Then  we  passed  in 
rapid  succession,  and  got  glimpses  of,  the  islands 
of  St.  Martin,  St.  Bartholomew,  St.  Eustatius, 
Barbuda,  St.  Christopher,  Nevis,  Antigua,  Mont- 
serrat,  Guadeloupe,  and  Maria  Galante. 

50 


TEN   THOUSAND   MILES   IN  A  YACHT 


DOMINICA 

Then  we  came  to  Dominica  and  sailed  along 
its  lee  shore  until  we  reached  Roseau,  the  little 
capital,  which  is  situated  about  half  way  down 
the  Western  coast. 

In  respect  of  natural  scenery,  Dominica  is  the 


ROSEAU,  DOMINICA 


most  beautiful  of  the  Lesser  Antilles.  From 
our  anchorage  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  off 
the  shore  of  Roseau,  while  we  were  awaiting  the 
fulfilment  of  harbor  formalities  before  landing, 
we  gazed  with  wonder  and  delight — even  those 
of  us  who  had  seen  this  or  similar  tropical  beauty 

51 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

and  grandeur  before — at  the  clear,  sapphire-blue 
water  lapping  lazily  on  the  palm-fringed  shore, 
the  dense,  dark-green  and  light-green  foliage  of 
the  near  slopes,  the  darker  density  of  the  forest 
on  the  acclivitous  sharp-ridged  mountains  be- 
yond, and  the  fine,  clear-cut,  culminating  peaks, 
each  capped  with  a  little,  separate,  fleecy  cloud. 

Bermuda  had  pleased  us  with  its  verdure  and 
its  sunny  atmosphere  ;  but  we  now  recognized 
that  Bermuda  was  not  tropical,  that  its  beauty 
was  tame  in  comparison  with  this  grandeur  and 
rank  tropical  growth,  and  that  its  light  was  dull 
when  compared  with  the  intense  luminosity  of 
this  ethereal  atmosphere. 

We  were  all  impatient  to  get  ashore  and  make 
intimate  acquaintance  with  these  scenes,  which 
so  fascinated  us  at  a  distance.  But  we  lingered 
awhile  to  watch  the  numerous  young  negroes, 
who  had  come  alongside  the  yacht,  sporting  in 
the  water  like  amphibians  and  diving  for  the 
coins  which  we  threw  to  them. 

"God  made  the  country,"  it  has  been  said, 
"and  man  made  the  town."  Here  in  Dominica, 

52 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

man's  part  of  the  work,  that  of  town-making, 
does  not  amount  to  very  much.  As  a  town, 
Roseau  is  about  as  primitive  a  place  as  one  could 
find  on  the  highways  or  byways  of  the  Western 
seas.  To  the  observer  out  in  the  harbor,  it  pre- 
sents a  low,  stone  bulwark  and  a  line  of  yellow- 
white,  plaster  buildings  of  unequal  height,  plain 
and  unprepossessing.  These  are  the  stores  and 
native  business  houses.  Further  inland  one 
catches  a  glimpse  of  diminutive  lath-houses, 
thatched  with  palm-leaves.  At  one  end  of  the 
town,  on  a  slight  eminence,  are  half  seen,  half 
divined,  several  buildings  of  more  attractive  ap- 
pearance, well-made  white  villas  and  bungalows, 
with  charming  gardens  and  a  profusion  of  shrubs, 
palms,  and  creepers.  These  are  the  Governor's 
residence  and  the  official  buildings. 

On  landing,  we  found  the  town  a  great  deal 
more  extensive  than  it  had  seemed  from  the 
harbor,  from  which  view-point  the  greater  part 
of  it  is  hidden  by  some  elevated  ground  and  by 
the  trees  and  shrubs  which  fill  every  vacant 
space.  Walking  in  these  narrow  little  streets 

53 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

of  soil,  a  visitor  from  a  big  city,  particularly  one 
from  a  city  of  skyscrapers,  experiences  a  strange 
sensation — that  of  having  dropped,  like  Gulliver, 
into  a  land  of  pigmies,  or  of  some  sort  of  supe- 


STREET  SCENE,  ROSEAU,  DOMINICA 

rior  animal  which  knows  how  to  build  its  own 
kennel — so  small  and  so  primitive  are  these 
flimsy,  lath-built,  leaf-thatched,  windowless  habi- 
ations. 

But  if  the  houses  are  the  houses  of  pigmies, 

54 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

the  inhabitants  are  strong,  well-built  people. 
There  are  28,000  on  the  island,  and  some  8,000 
in  the  town  of  Roseau.  Almost  the  entire  popu- 
lation is  of  Negro  race,  there  being  only  a  few 
hundred  Whites — English  settlers,  who  live 
mostly  on  their  plantations  up  on  the  rich-soiled 
plateau  or  on  the  hillsides  of  the  interior. 

Dominica  is  a  British  colony,  and  its  affairs 
are  administered  with  the  usual  efficiency  of 
British  Colonial  government.  But  somehow  it 
has  not  advanced  and  developed,  as  most  other 
British  colonies  have  done,  in  proportion  to  its 
possibilities.  Nature  has  endowed  few  coun- 
tries with  more  fertility,  but  beyond  the  produc- 
tion of  limes  and  a  small  amount  of  cacao  and 
sugar,  man  has  here  done  hardly  anything  to  turn 
the  richness  of  the  soil  to  his  use  and  profit.  Yet 
the  climate  is  healthy,  and  on  the  plateau  and  hills 
it  is  even  delightful  and  exhilarating.  The  great 
drawback  to  cultivation  is  the  difficulty  of  secur- 
ing reliable  and  continuous  labor.  The  native 
Negroes,  who  constitute  nearly  the  entire  pop- 
ulation, are  not  under  the  necessity  of  doing  much 

55 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

work.  There  are  plenty  of  fish  in  the  sea  near 
their  abodes,  and  natural  fruits  and  foods  to  their 
liking  grow  everywhere  in  abundance.  The  cli- 
mate is  such  that  they  require  little  in  the  way 


A  MOUNTAIN   LAKE,  DOMINICA 

of  clothing  and  housing,  and  they  have  no  ambi- 
tion towards  a  different  sort  of  existence.  So 
why  should  they  work  ?  But  if  an  enterprising 
man,  in  search  of  fresh  fields  and  pastures  new, 
could  solve  the  labor  problem  of  the  island,  here 
is  a  soil  for  his  tilling  that  would  yield  tenfold, 
twentyfold,  yea,ra  hundredfold. 

56 


IN   THE   FOREST,  DOMINICA 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

The  Negroes  speak  a  curious  lingo,  a  sort  of 
French  patois,  originally  picked  up  from  the 
French  settlers  in  the  Antilles.  They  have 
softened  the  consonants,  clipped  the  original 
words  often  beyond  recognition,  and  done  away 
with  inflections  and  such  grammatical  frills  and 
flourishes.  But  the  young  generation  have  all 
had  two  or  three  years'  schooling,  and  speak 
English  fairly  well,  besides  their  own  lingo. 

The  most  striking  feature  of  the  town  of 
Roseau  is  its  Botanical  Garden,  an  extensive 
park-like  enclosure  which  would  do  honor  to 
any  country  anywhere  in  the  world.  It  is  kept 
in  perfect  condition  and  contains  fine  specimens 
of  tropical  shrubs  and  trees  not  only  from  the 
countries  of  the  Western  Hemisphere,  but  from 
the  Orient  as  well.  We  were  curious  to  know 
why  such  a  fine  and  apparently  expensive  gar- 
den had  been  established  and  how  it  was  kept 
up  in  such  a  poor  town  as  Roseau,  and  we  learnt 
that  it  had  been  largely  developed  by  exchanges 
with  and  through  the  famous  gardens  at  Kew, 
London,  and  that  it  is  entirely  self-supporting, 

59 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

as  it  provides  improved  plants  and  seeds  to  cul- 
tivators in  Dominica  and  other  islands. 

Among  the  many  pleasurable  sensations  ex- 
perienced by  us  in  Dominica,  there  were  two  at 


ON  THE   HILLSIDE,  DOMINICA 

least  which  I,  for  my  part,  shall  long  remember. 
One  was  purely  physical,  the  other  mental ;  the 
first  was  the  joy  of  diving  from  the  yacht  and 
swimming  in  tepid  water  that  looked  like  a  sea 
of  liquid  sapphire ;  the  second  was  the  quiet 

60 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

emotion  of  watching  the  approach  of  night  over 
the  island.  The  sun  sank,  a  crimson  globe,  into 
the  indigo  sea,  and,  disappearing,  threw  up  a 
flush  of  delicate  orange  and  violet  along  the 
Western  horizon  and  a  faint  pink  glow  to  the 
arch  of  the  firmament.  The  hills  of  Dominica 
on  our  east,  but  a  few  moments  before  lumin- 
ously verdant,  darkened  to  a  sombre  green, 
then  to  a  vague  black  from  which  the  green  had 
vanished.  And  now  a  profound  peace  and  a 
brooding  melancholy  fell  upon  the  land  from 
shore  to  peak.  The  glow  of  the  atmosphere 
went  out ;  stars  began  to  twinkle  here  and 
there  in  the  heavens ;  the  sea  became  dim  and 
shadowy.  Now  the  hills  grew  into  an  obscure, 
slumbering  mass.  Far  up  the  mountain  side 
gleamed  one  lone  light.  Here  and  there  a  lamp 
flickered  in  the  town.  The  tropic  day  was  done. 
Dominica  is  30  miles  long  and  has  an  aver- 
age width  of  12  miles.  Its  area  is  290  square 
miles.  The  majestic  mountain  Morne  Diablotin 
rises  to  a  height  of  5,314  feet,  and  is  the  most 
elevated  peak  in  the  Lesser  Antilles. 

61 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

On  leaving  Roseau  we  proceeded  South  along 
the  shore  of  Dominica  and  got  a  fine  panoramic 
view  of  the  rest  of  the  Western  slope  of  this 
beautiful  island. 


THE  DEVASTATED   HILLS  OF  MARTINIQUE 


62 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


MARTINIQUE 

Then  followed  a  couple  of  hours  of  open  sea 
and  we  reached  the  northern  extremity  of  Mar- 
tinique, a  few  miles  from  which  Mont  Pelee  is 
situated. 

Almost  immediately  the  effects  of  the  great 
upheaval  of  May  8th,  1902,  were  manifest  to  us. 
The  northward-facing  slope  of  the  island  is 
green  and  forest-clad,  like  Dominica,  which  we 
had  just  left.  But  immediately  beyond  begins 
the  devastation  and  the  desolation. 

And  what  a  devastation,  what  a  desolation! 
All  the  northern  part  of  the  island  slopes  up, 
first  gradually  from  the  sea,  then  steeply  and 
more  steeply  to  the  peak  of  Mont  Pelee,  which 
attains  a  height  of  about  5,000  feet.  And  all 
this  sloping  country  (except  here  and  there  a 
northward-facing  valley) — thousands  of  acres  in 
extent — is  stripped  of  its  once  gorgeous  jungle, 
left  as  bare  of  vegetation  as  a  cliff  of  rock,  and 
covered  to  a  depth  of  many  feet  with  mud  and 

63 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

dust  from  the  exploded  volcano.  Along  the 
shore  the  sea  has  cut  a  sharp  line,  and  the  depth 
of  the  deposit  can  be  plainly  seen.  Looking  at 
this,  one  cannot  but  marvel  at  the  amount  of 
mud  and  dust  and  scoria — millions  of  tons — 
that  must  have  issued  from  the  crater  of  the 
volcano  on  the  day  of  the  eruption.  When  we 
were  at  Barbados  a  day  or  two  later,  we  were 
told  that  two  inches  of  dust  had  fallen  on  that 
island  on  the  day  of  the  eruption — and  Barbados 
is  some  150  miles  distant  from  Mont  Pelee. 

Three  years  ago  Martinique  was  as  densely 
wooded  as  Dominica  or  Santa  Lucia.  Many 
writers — among  them  the  late  Lafcadio  Hearn 
in  his  admirable  "  Two  Years  in  the  French 
West  Indies" — have  applied  their  most  subtle 
literary  powers  to  its  description,  and  found  the 
resources  of  their  language  and  art  all  too 
meagre  to  enable  them  adequately  to  render 
the  forest  which  clothed  the  slope  from  the  sea 
to  the  summit  of  Mont  Pelee  and  the  range 
which  extends  along  the  island.  Now  for  many 
miles,  as  I  have  said,  the  land  is  stripped  bare 

64 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

of  vegetation.  Thousands  of  acres  are  abso- 
lutely nude,  not  so  much  as  a  blade  of  grass 
showing  anywhere  on  them.  But  some  miles 
away  from  the  peak  the  land  is  beginning  to 
vest  itself  in  green  again,  particularly  in  the 
ravines  and  valleys.  The  site  of  St.  Pierre,  the 
once  gay  and  busy  city,  whose  30,000  souls  per- 
ished in  a  few  minutes,  is  as  sad  a  scene  to  look 
upon  as  one  could  well  imagine.  A  large  area 
of  the  town  is  completely  wiped  out ;  on  it  there 
is  nothing  to  indicate  that  habitations  of  men 
ever  stood  there.  Along  the  harbor  front, 
where  the  business  houses  and  finer  edifices 
were  situated,  there  is  now  only  a  conglomera- 
tion of  stumps  of  houses,  so  to  speak,  and  the 
whole  place  suggests  a  vast  ruined  cemetery  of 
some  race  of  Titans,  with  giant  tombstones 
broken,  jagged  and  jumbled.  Of  the  wharves 
and  harbor  bulwarks  there  is  hardly  a  trace  left, 
and  the  streets  are  entirely  obliterated,  buried 
ten  or  twelve  feet  deep  in  dry  mud  and  dust. 

Truly  this  is  a  sight  to  inspire  the  observer  with 
awe  and  wonder  and  pity.     The  heart  sinks  and 

67 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

the  throat  tightens  as  the  eye  wanders  over 
these  charred  and  blasted  remains  and  the  im- 
agination dwells  on  the  simultaneous  death 
agonies  of  the  30,000  men,  women  and  children 
as  they  drew  into  their  lungs  the  asphyxiating 
gases  from  the  volcano  and  felt  the  fury-flood 
rise  round  them  on  that  fearful  May  morning 
when  the  mountain  belched  forth  its  fiery 
vomit. 

We  did  not  land  at  the  ruined  city  until  next 
day,  as  we  were  obliged  to  go  to  Fort  de  France 
to  get  a  permit. 

Early  next  morning,  we  steamed  back  to  St. 
Pierre  and  went  ashore,  spending  a  couple  of 
hours  wandering  among  the  ruins.  We  picked 
up  many  an  interesting  souvenir  and  acquired 
others  from  the  "young  Negroes  who  come  here 
from  the  surrounding  country  to  rummage  for 
treasures.  Skulls  and  parts  of  skeletons  were 
found  in  abundance.  On  getting  back  to  the 
yacht,  those  of  us  who  had  done  the  most  pok- 
ing and  digging  were  so  dust-begrimed  that  we 
were  constrained  to  doff  our  clothes  and  plunge 

68 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

overboard    into    the    clear   blue  waters  of   the 
harbor. 

The  crater  of  Mont  Pel^e  still  sends  forth  a 
thin  fume,  but  the  steeple  of  the  peak  is  almost 


FORT  DE  FRANCE,  MARTINIQUE 

always  wreathed  in  a  small  clinging  cloud,  which 
hides  it  from  view. 

Two  or  three  miles  away  from  the  ruined 
town  a  few  huts  of  fishermen  may  be  seen,  and 
one  intrepid  planter  has  raised  a  field  of  sugar- 
cane on  an  eminence  near  the  ruins.  For  the 

71 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

rest,  there  is  no  cultivation  or  dwelling  within 
several  miles.  Fort  de  France,  however,  eleven 
or  twelve  miles  to  the  South,  is  still  densely 
populated  and  seems  active  and  fairly  prosper- 
ous. 


MARTINIQUE  TYPES 


72 


SANTA    LUCIA 

About  midday  we  left  the  ruins  of  St.  Pierre 
and  turned  south  again,  passing  Fort  de  France 
without  re-entering.  After  traversing  another 
stretch  of  open  sea,  we  came  to  the  beautiful 
island  of  Santa  Lucia,  and,  steaming  along  its 
eastern  shore,  we  had  another  superb  panoramic 
view — as  at  Dominica — of  sharp-ridged,  majestic 
mountains  rising  gradually  from  the  sea-line, 
then  steeply  and  more  steeply,  to  culminating 

73 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

peaks ;  of  shady  valleys  with  little  settlements 
peeping  out  of  palm-groves  near  the  shore;  of 
a  plantation  here  and  there  on  the  hillside  ; 
and,  everywhere  else,  of  the  dense,  dark-green 
tropical  forest.  The  sea  was  incredibly  clear 
and  blue,  and  sea  and  land  alike  were  bathed  in 
an  indescribable  luminosity.  Santa  Lucia  has 
some  beautiful  bays  which  would  make  splendid 
harbors,  were  they  needed.  Castries  is  a  fine 
port  and  seems  to  serve  all  present  require- 
ments. The  island  is  very  fertile,  but,  like 
Dominica,  it  is  in  a  backward  state,  for  the  same 
reasons  and  for  the  additional  one,  it  is  said, 
that  the  fer  de  lance,  a  deadly  little  snake,  is  an 
active  denizen  of  the  forest  of  this  island. 

As  we  were  nearing  the  southern  end  of 
Santa  Lucia  something  went  wrong  with  our 
steering  gear  and  we  were  obliged  to  lie  to  for 
an  hour.  Very  fortunately,  this  happened  just 
as  we  came  to  the  Pitons,  the  two  famous  cone- 
shaped  peaks  which  rise  sheer  from  the  sea  to  a 
height  of  respectively  2,715  and  2,500  feet,  and 
we  had  the  good  luck  of  seeing  them  with  the 

74 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

color-glory  of  the  setting   sun  upon  their  pre- 
cipitous flanks. 

Santa  Lucia  looks  like  a  paradise,  and  we 
were  sorry  indeed  to  leave  it  in  our  wake  with- 
out having  set  foot  upon  it. 


COAST-LINE,  BARBADOS 


75 


BARBADOS 

The  next  morning,  November  26th,  we  awoke 
in  the  harbor  of  Bridgetown,  Barbados.  Here 
we  spent  three  days,  coaling,  provisioning,  shop- 
ping, and  exploring  the  town  and  its  environs. 

Scenically,  Barbados  is  not  nearly  so  interest- 
ing and  attractive  as  the  islands  we  had  just  vis- 
ited. It  is  supposed  to  be  partly  of  volcanic 
but  mainly  of  coral  formation.  It  is  compara- 
tively flat  and  bare,  though  there  are  fine  hills 
and  woods  in  the  interior,  and  plenty  of  palms 
and  other  trees  and  shrubs  in  patches,  and  an 

76 


IN  THE  WOODS  OF  THE   INTERIOR,  BARBADOS 


- 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

abundance    of    flowers    even    in    and    around 
Bridgetown. 

Commercially  and  agriculturally,  Barbados  is 


THE  WHARF,  BRIDGETOWN.  BARBADOS 

by  far  the  most  important  of  the  Lesser  Antil- 
les. It  is  a  great  shipping  centre  and  has  an 
enormous  output  of  sugar,  a  great  part  of  the 
island  being  given  up  to  the  cultivation  of 
sugar-cane. 

79 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


Bridgetown  is  a  clean,  well-kept  city.  The 
houses  in  the  business  quarter  are  mostly  one 
or  two  story  structures  built  of  coral  rock,  plas- 
ter and  red  tiles.  They  are  low  and  plain  and 
have  no  architectural  pretentions.  The  streets 
are  very  narrow,  but  the  blue-white  pulverized 
coral-rock  of  which  they  are  made  gives  them  a 
very  clean  appearance.  The  public  buildings 
are  imposing  and  the  residential  locality  of  the 
well-to-do  Whites — Bellerville — with  its  long 
avenue  of  cabbage-palms,  its  handsome  villas, 

and  pretty  private 
gardens,  is  as  at- 
tractive a  sight  as 
one  could  see  in 
any  city.  A  drive 
along  one  of  the 
numerous  roads 
leading  out  of  the 
town,  or  a  short 
journey  in  a  mule- 
tram,  is  sure  to 
furnish  entertain- 


BARBADOS  TYPES-I 


80 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


ment.  It  is  Negroes, 
Negroes  everywhere;  the 
island  seems  overrun  with 
them.  They  are  a  sturdy 
but  not  very  prepossess- 
ing branch  of  the  race. 
But  there  is  one  graceful 
feature  about  them — the 
women  carry  their  bur- 
dens on  a  wooden  tray 
on  their  heads,  and  this 
gives  them  a  fine  car- 
riage. Along  every 
country  road  near  Bridge- 
town, hundreds  of  bare- 
footed, white-robed  girls  and  young  women  are 
to  be  seen  carrying  wares  and  food — often  a 
weighty  burden — to  or  from  the  market,  and 
the  sight  is  a  pleasing  one. 

We  spent  a  Saturday  evening  in  Barbados, 
and  shall  not  soon  forget  the  scene  in  the 
streets.  Thousands,  it  seemed  to  us,  of  bare- 
footed Negro  girls  and  women  sauntered  about 

81 


BARBADOS  TYPES-II 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

the  narrow  streets,  buying  and  selling  at  the 
spacious  market  or  at  the  little  dingy  lamp-lit 
shops.  They  jostled  each  other  and  the  stray 
visitor  good-naturedly,  laughed  and  skipped, 


THE  MAIN  STREET,  BRIDGETOWN,  BARBADOS 

and  jabbered  and  flirted  with  the  dusky  young 
men,  and  sang  snatches  of  melodies.  Then,  at 
an  early  hour,  the  lights  began  to  go  out,  the 
swarm  of  hags  and  maidens  dwindled  and  disap- 
peared, and  we  suddenly  found  ourselves  almost 
the  sole  occupants  of  the  streets,  excepting  a 

82 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


horde  of  Negro  watermen  who  waited  near  the 
wharves  to  pounce  upon  us  and  fight  among 
themselves  for  the  privilege  and  perquisites  of 
rowing  us  out  to 
the  yacht. 

After  that  night, 
it  was  easy  for  the 
statisticians  to  con- 
vince us  that  Barb- 
ados is  the  most 
densely  populated 
country  in  the 
world.  It  has  a 

population  of  1,200  to  the  square  mile;  of  its 
200,000  souls  only  15,000  are  Whites  ;  50,000 
are  of  mixed  race,  and  135,000  are  Negroes. 

The  Whites  are  the  governing  race,  and  most 
of  the  wealth  and  business  and  enterprise  is  in 
their  hands.  Their  numerical  proportion  is  con- 
tinually decreasing,  and  it  is  to  be  apprehended 
that  Barbados  may  one  day  be  the  scene  of  cal- 
amitous race  troubles.  Meanwhile,  to  the  out- 
sider at  least,  peace  and  order  seem  to  prevail, 

83 


STREET  SCENE,   BRIDGETOWN, 
BARBADOS 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

though  plots  and  revolt  are  not  unknown.  The 
British  Colonial  Government  is  certainly  to  be 
congratulated  on  the  efficiency  it  has  shown  in 


NATIVE    DWELLINGS,  BRIDGETOWN,  BARBADOS 

dealing  with  these  difficult  conditions  and  this 
refractory  human  material. 

The  agricultural  and  commercial  prosperity  of 
Barbados  is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  here  the 
Negro  is  obliged  to  do  a  certain  amount  of  work 

84 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


A  SUGAR-CANE   FIELD,    BARBADOS 

or  starve,  for  there  is  no  land  on  which  he  can 
"squat." 

Barbados  has  the  repu- 
tation of  being  salubrious, 
and  the  White  inhabitants 
seem  fairly  active  and  ener- 
getic. But  the  tempera- 
ture, though  not  oppres- 
sive, is  continually  high, 
and,  Anglo-Saxons,  after  a 
short  residence,  particularly 
Anglo-Saxon  women,  ac- 
quire a  pasty  complexion, 

BARBADOS   TYPES-III 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


which  would  seem  to  indicate  an  impoverish- 
ment of  the  blood  and  a  general  devitalization. 
After  visiting  many  tropical  and  sub-tropical 
lands,  I  am  convinced  that  a  continual  high 
temperature  is  not  conducive  to  the  full  devel- 
opment or  the  maintenance  of  the  well-being  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  —  who  has  been  prepared, 
through  his  ancestry,  for  other  conditions - 
and  that,  like  continual  cold,  it  is  almost  in- 
evitably fatal  to  feminine  freshness  and  beauty. 


THE  "VIRGINIA"  AT  BARBADOS-CLEANING  SHIP 
86 


DOWN    TO   THE    EQUATOR 

E  left  Barbados  just  before  sunset  on  No- 
vember 28th,  and  after  a  five  days'  run 
through  stiff  south-east  trade  winds  and  a  roll- 
ing, white-capped  sea,  sufficiently  boisterous  to 
keep  the  yacht  dancing  all  the  time,  we  reached 
the  mouth  of  the  great  "Inland  Sea,"  the  "  King 
of  Rivers,"  the  "  Mediterranean  of  South  Amer- 
ica " — as  the  Amazon  has  been  variously  called. 
The  only  events  worthy  of  particular  mention 
during  these  five  days  were  the  fine  sunsets,  and 
they  were,  indeed,  events.  Two,  at  least,  of  our 
party,  and  generally  more,  whatever  we  hap- 
pened to  be  doing  at  the  time,  would  give  up 
half-an-hour  to  the  contemplation  of  these  gorge- 
ous solar  displays.  O  for  a  collection  of  those 
five  master-paintings  of  Nature  !  Yet  a  painter 
who  should  depict  on  canvas  such  sunsets  as 
those  would  be  looked  upon  as  a  fantastic  per- 
verter  of  reality,  color-drunk  and  visually  mad. 

87 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

They  were  not  at  all  alike  in  their  composition 
and  general  scheme,  though  the  colors  repre- 
sented each  evening  were  much  the  same.  I  will 
not  attempt  to  describe  these  magnificent  sights, 
and  will  only  mention  that  the  colors  were  re- 
markable for  the  fact  that  there  were  none  of 
the  ordinary  tones  in  them.  Every  color  was 
an  exceedingly  delicate  ethereal  half-tone.  There 
were  no  full  reds  or  blues  or  yellows,  but  orange 
and  gold-reds,  lemon  and  topaz-yellows,  turquoise 
blues,  lilac-violets,  and  the  green  that  one  sees 
in  the  gleams  of  certain  opals,  while  the  arch  of 
the  sky  overhead  would  be  flushed  with  a  faint 
coral-pink. 


A    MONTH    ON    THE    AMAZON 
THE    MOUTH    OF   THE    GREAT    RIVER 

crossed  the  equator  at  sunrise  on  De- 
cember 3d,  and,  two  or  three  hours  later, 
sighted  a  low  line  of  land,  the  coast  of  North- 
ern Brazil.  For  the  past  couple  of  days,  we  had 
kept  well  east  of  the  South  American  shore  to 
avoid  the  strong  northward-setting  current.  But 
such  is  the  force  of  the  easterly  current  along 
the  equator,  caused,  it  is  believed,  by  the  sweep 
of  the  Amazon  into  the  ocean,  that  we  had  been 
carried  in  a  few  hours  seventeen  miles  still  fur- 

89 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

ther  eastward,  although  we  were  at  the  time 
over  fifty  miles  from  the  land.  Even  at  this  dis- 
tance from  the  mouth  of  the  river,  the  natural 
sapphire  blue  of  the  tropical  ocean  is  discolored 


ON  THE  LOWER  AMAZON 

to  a  dark  olive-green  by  the  yellow  waters  of 
the  mighty  stream,  and  it  is  said  that  this  dis- 
coloration is  observed  as  far  out  to  sea  as  two 
hundred  miles.  These  facts  gave  us  our  first 
sense  of  the  marvellous  volume  and  force  of  the 

Amazon. 

9o 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


Some  seventy  miles  from  Para,  we  came  across 
a  pilot  boat  and  took  a  Brazilian  pilot  aboard. 
Soon  after,  we  were  told  that  we  were  now  on 

the  Amazon :  but 
there  was  nothing 
visible  to  indicate 
the  fact,  except  the 
increasing  yellow- 
ness of  the  water; 
for  we  had  lost 
sight  of  the  land 
again,  and  to  all  ap- 
pearances were  out 
on  the  open  sea. 
And  no  wonder  we 
failed  to  discern  the 


PILOT  BOAT  AND  CUTTER- MOUTH 
OF  THE  AMAZON 


banks,  for  the  river 
is   estimated   to  be 

about  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  across  at  its 
mouth.  The  estuary  contains  hundreds  of 
islands,  among  them  the  great  island  of  Maraj6, 
which  is  over  two  hundred  miles  long,  and  over 
one  hundred  and  eighty  broad,  that  is  to  say,  con- 

93 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

siderably  larger  than  Switzerland,  or  more  than 
twice  the  size  of  Massachusetts.  Marajo  divides 
the  river  at  its  mouth  into  two  main  outlets,  of 
which  the  southern  is  called  the  Para  River. 
This  we  entered  and  we  found  it  to  be  in  itself 
so  wide  that  only  one  of  its  banks  could  be  seen. 
This  branch,  too,  contains  scores  of  islands,  some 
of  them  big  enough  to  look  like  the  mainland. 
As  we  steamed  along,  large  fish  leaped  out  of 
the  water  about  our  bows,  and  we  got  our  first 


THE  RIVER-FRONT,  PARA 
94 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


view  of  things  which,  of  absorbing  interest  that 
day,  afterward  became  commonplace  and  weari- 
some by  reason  of  their  continual  reiteration — 
floating  islands  and  patches  of  shrubs  and  rank 
grass,  tree  trunks  and  other  debris.  And  here 
begins  the  scenery  of  the  river,  scenery  which 


CRAFT  OF  THE  LOWER  AMAZON,  AT  PARA 

is  more  or  less  typical  of  hundreds  of  miles  of 
the  Amazon  Valley;  for  there  is  little  change 
on  the  Lower  Amazon,  and  not  very  much  on 
the  whole  length  of  the  river,  except  in  the 

97 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


THE  MODERN  SECTION,  PARA 

grouping  of  the  details,  the  contours  of  the 
stream  and  its  islands,  and  the  width  of  the 
vistas — a  broad  expanse  of  yellow,  muddy  water, 
low  lying  mainland  or  islands  covered  with 
dense  jungle  growing  right  down  into  the  water, 
a  wall  of  dark  green  matted  foliage  in  which 
palms  of  many  varieties  are  abundant,  a  tangle 
of  shrubs  and  creepers,  with  rank  grass  and 
reeds  among  the  tree  trunks;  and  beyond  this 
wall  of  forest  nothing  visible  but  the  sky,  the 

98 


A  BUSINESS  CENTRE,    PARA 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

land  being  only  a  few  feet  out  of  the  water  and 
seldom  rising  above  or  falling  below  one  general 
level. 

THE   CITY   OF   PARA 

We  came  within  sight  of  Para"  at  sunset,  and 
anchored  for  the  night  some  eight  miles  off, 
going  up  to  the  city  at  daybreak  next  morning. 
Those  of  us  who  had  not  been  on  the  Amazon 
before  were  surprised  to  find  Para  such  an  ex- 
tensive and  important  place.  Hundreds  of  ves- 


A  TYPICAL  PARA  DWELLING 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

sels — ocean  liners,  men-of-war,  river  steamers, 
launches,  tugs,  lighters,  and  small  sailing  craft 
of  picturesque  appearance — lay  in  the  harbor, 
telling  a  tale  of  much  traffic  and  many  cargoes. 
Para  is  a  curious  mixture  of  beauty  and  ugli- 
ness, in  which  respect,  of  course,  it  does  not 
differ  from  most  other  cities.  The  river  front  is 
occupied  by  trapiches — landing  jetties  and  stor- 
age sheds — and  the  first  street  behind  these  is 
the  commercial  street  of  the  port,  containing 
the  offices  and  storehouses  of  the  importers, 
rubber  merchants,  brokers,  and  shipping  com- 
panies. Beyond,  the  city  extends  in  narrow 
streets  to  the  section  of  retail  trade,  where 
cheap  imported  articles  are  sold  at  amazingly 
high  prices.  Here  one  may  board  a  mule  tram- 
car  and  emerge  into  a  broad  avenue  leading  to 
the  modern  section  of  the  city,  where  handsome 
residences  and  fine  public  buildings  and  squares 
planted  with  tropical  trees  greet  the  eye.  In 
this  vicinity  is  the  Botanical  and  Zoological 
Garden,  which  contains  a  most  interesting  col- 
lection of  living  specimens  of  Amazonian  birds, 

102 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

beasts,  reptiles,  plants,  and  trees.  Off  the  main 
thoroughfares,  in  little  tile  and  plaster  houses, 
often  windowless,  dwells  the  mass  of  the  popu- 


OUTSKIRTS   OF   PARA 


lation,  while  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town,  near 
the  primitive  forest,  in  huts  of  lath  and  mud 
thatched  with  palm  leaves,  lives  the  poorer  class 
of  indolent  dark-skinned  people. 


103 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

The  population  of  Para  is  estimated  at  about 
one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand,  and  an  aston- 
ishing mixture  of  races  composes  it.  There  are 
a  few  hundred  Europeans — English,  Germans, 
and  Portuguese  mostly — engaged  in  shipping, 
banking,  importing,  and  the  buying  and  export- 
ation of  cacao  and  rubber.  The  rest  of  the 
population  are  Brazilians,  Negroes,  Indians,  and 
all  possible  blends  of  these  three. 


IN  THE  OLD  SECTION,  PARA 
104 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


Para*  being  just  under  the  equator;  we  were 
prepared  to  find  it  intolerably  hot.  Hot  it  is, 
but  not  intolerably.  The  perpetual  trade  wind 
that  blows  in  from  the  Atlantic  and  across  a 
great  part  of  the  con- 
tinent fills  the  air  with 
moisture,  but  keeps 
down  the  temperature. 
In  the  Lower  Amazon 
the  thermometer 
ranges  about  87  de- 
grees in  the  shade  in 
the  daytime  all  the 
year  round,  and  falls 
several  degrees  at 
night.  At  Manaos, 
one  thousand  miles  up 
the  river,  as  we  found  later,  the  average  temper- 
ature is  from  six  to  eight  degrees  higher.  On 
our  return  from  Manaos,  an  official  inquired  of 
the  Commodore  the  difference  between  the 
temperature  of  Manaos  and  that  of  Para.  "  It 
is  about  eight  degrees  warmer  at  Manaos,"  was 

105 


A   NORTH    BRAZILIAN   CHURCH 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


the  reply,  at  which 
the  face  of  the  official 
assumed  a  blank  ex- 
pression. The  uni- 
formity of  tempera- 
ture at  the  equator 
renders  a  thermome- 
ter of  little  use,  and 
the  significance  of 
degrees  is  not  well 
understood.  But  the 
face  of  the  official 
lighted  up  with  un- 
derstanding when 
the  Commodore  added — "  At  Manaos  I  used  to 
wilt  six  collars  a  day;  here  in  Para  I  don't 
need  more  than  three  a  day." 

Everywhere  in  the  Amazon  valley  the  humid- 
ity of  the  air  is  very  great.  The  least  exertion 
produces  profuse  perspiration.  Yet  the  heat  is 
not  oppressive  or  overpowering,  and  one  never 
hears  of  a  case  of  sunstroke.  We  were  fortun- 
ate, however,  in  that  the  Virginia  always  lay 

106 


TYPES  OF  NORTH  BRAZILIAN 
BEAUTY-I 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


well  out  in  the  stream  when  at  anchor,  and  we 
got  the  full  benefit  of  such  breezes  as  might  be 
stirring.  Our  fine  awnings  and  many  electric 
fans,  too,  kept  down  the  temperature  on  the 
yacht  considerably.  Our  recollections  of  the 
Amazon  would  doubtless  be  much  less  pleasant 
had  we  been  obliged  to  eat  and  sleep  ashore. 

We  remained  five  days  at  Para  and  learned 
much  about  the  people  and  their  life.  We  were 
most  hospitably  re- 
ceived and  enter- 
tained by  the  Gov- 
ernor and  other 
prominent  citizens, 
and  the  press  chron- 
icled our  doings 
minutely  from  day 
to  day  and  showed 
us  every  courtesy. 
We  here  saw  being 
brought  in  and 
handled  large  quanti- 
ties of  crude  rubber, 


TYPES  OF  NORTH  BRAZILIAN 
BEAUTY— II 


107 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES*  IN  A  YACHT 

w 

a  product  which  is  the  material  basis  of  prac- 
tically the  whole  human  life  of  the  Amazon 
Valley.  Without  it,  it  is  safe  to  say,  the  millions 
of  acres  drained  by  the  great  stream  and  its 
tributaries  would  to-day  be  uninhabited,  except 
by  an  occasional  tribe  of  redmen.  But  more 
of  rubber  anon. 


THE   MUNICIPAL   PARK,  PARA 


108 


OFF  TO  VISIT  THE  GOVERNOR 
(Silk  hats  and  127°  in  the  sun) 


A   THOUSAND    MILE   JOURNEY    UPSTREAM 

Taking  two  pilots  aboard  on  the  evening  of 
December  8th,  we  weighed  the  two  anchors  we 
had  been  obliged  to  use  on  account  of  the  cur- 
rent, and  started  on  our  long  inland  cruise.  The 
Amazon  pilots  never  use  chart  or  compass,  and 
it  was  a  marvel  to  us  how  they  find  their  way 
among  the  labyrinthine  channels  and  innumera- 
ble islands  and  shoals,  especially  at  night — for 
we  travelled  night  and  day.  Yet  most  of  them 

109 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

know   the   banks   and   shoals   and    currents   for 
more  than  two  thousand  miles. 

We  awoke  the  next  morning  in  the  Narrows, 
some  eighty-five  miles  of  channels  through  scores 


AMAZON   PILOTS  AND   OUR   FIRST  OFFICER 

of  islands,  large  and  small.  The  breadth  of 
these  channels  varies  from  eighty  or  ninety 
yards  to  half  a  mile  or  more.  The  banks  of  the 
islands  are  very  low,  so  low  that  the  soil  is  rarely 
seen  ;  the  dense  forest  growth  pushes  right  down 
into  the  river,  forming  a  wall  through  which  it 


no 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

would  be  difficult  to  effect  a  landing  without  bill- 
hooks and  axes.  Here  the  forest  is  perhaps 
more  gorgeous  and  luxuriant  than  anywhere  else 
on  the  river.  The  trees  are  of  considerable 
height  and  girth,  closely  set  together,  densely 
leafed,  and  of  great  variety.  Palms  of  many 
kinds  are  conspicuous  everywhere,  and  rich- 
tinted  orchids  and  other  forest  flowers  stand  out 
gayly  from  the  dark  and  the  luminous  greens  of 
the  heavy  foliage.  There  are  no  hills,  and  the 
traveller's  view  is  stopped  short  at  the  wall  of 
forest.  Here  and  there  is  a  clearing  of  a  few 
square  yards,  and  on  it,  set  upon  thin  piles, 
stands  the  most  primitive  sort  of  palm-leaf  hut, 
the  rude  dwelling  of  a  seringueiro,  or  rubber- 
gatherer.  These  livers  of  the  simple  life  are 
mostly  Negro-Indians  and  Negro-Indian-Brazil- 
ians.  As  we  steamed  along,  the  women,  and 
often  the  men — who  seemed  to  be  at  home  for 
the  day  with  nothing  to  do — would  gaze  at  us 
languidly,  without  stirring  from  their  squatting 
or  leaning  positions,  too  lazy  or  dull  to  lift  a 
hand  in  answer  to  our  salutations,  though  their 

"3 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

numerous  naked  children,  with  more  energy, 
curiosity  and  good  will,  would  run  out  to  the 
end  of  their  tottering  canoe-jetty,  reply  to  our 


THE   "VIRGINIA"   IN   "THE  NARROWS" 

greetings,  and  wonderingly  watch  our  (to  them) 
strange  white  craft  disappear  up  the  river. 

The  following  morning  at  daybreak  we  found 
we  had  emerged  from  the  labyrinth  of  islands 
into  the  full,  broad  stream.  Now  we  hugged 

114 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

one  shore,  now  the  other,  darting  across  the 
river  every  hour  or  two  to  avoid  the  strong  cur- 
rent. Here  the  river  varies  in  width  from  three 
to  seven  or  eight  miles,  but  its  broad  expanse 
is  more  often  than  not  still  shut  off  from  view 


WARPING  UP  STREAM 


by  large  islands,  some  of  them  many  miles  long. 
This  phenomenon  continues  all  the  way  up  the 
river;  there  are  islands  everywhere  and  in  every 
stage  of  being,  from  those  just  beginning  to 
form  and  grow  shrubs  and  trees  to  those  whose 
last  vestiges  are  just  being  swept  away  by  the 

us 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

current.  But  when  you  come  to  a  stretch  of 
open  river  you  have  the  sensation  of  sailing  on 
a  broad  sound,  like  Long  Island  Sound,  and 
looking  up  one  of  the  big  tributaries  where  it 


AN  ISLAND  ON   ITS  LAST  LEGS 


flows  into  the  main  stream  is  like  looking  into  a 
big  bay  or  gulf. 

Three  or  four  hundred  miles  up,  the  land  be- 
gins to  rise  a  little  higher  out  of  the  water,  and 
except  in  the  high-river  season,  assumes  the 
appearance  of  regular  banks — though  even  here 
these  are  only  a  few  feet  high — and  the  huts 
are  built  on  the  soil  instead  of  on  piles  in  the 
swamps,  as  they  are  lower  down.  As  you 

116 


TEN    THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 


ascend  the  river,  the  land  rises  very  gradually  a 
few  feet  higher  still ;  the  forest  becomes  less 
dense  and  luxuriant,  and  the  country  looks  more 
habitable.  Cacao  plantations  begin  to  appear, 
recurring  at  intervals  all  the  way  up  to  Manaos, 


AN   AMAZONIAN  VILLAGE 

and  here  and  there  a  courageous  pioneer  has 
cleared  a  patch  of  land,  made  a  homestead,  and 
raises  a  few  head  of  cattle.  A  line  of  low  hills 
now  varies  the  scene,  and  presently  a  range  of 
mountains,  with  a  peak  nearly  a  thousand  feet 

119 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

high,  appears  on  the  northern  mainland,  a  re- 
freshing sight  in  this  flat  wilderness  of  forest 
and  water.  Then  come  some  red  clay  cliffs  and 
a  picturesque  tier  of  hills  on  the  southern  bank. 
About  four  hundred  miles  from  Para  is  the  town 


A  RANCH  ON  A  TRIBUTARY  OF  THE  AMAZON 

of  Santare'm,  situated  on  a  terrace,  with  hills  be- 
hind it  and  a  broad  white  beach  before.  It  lies 
a  little  way  up  the  Tapajos  tributary,  whose 
waters  are  comparatively  clean  and  clear.  The 
town  has  a  population  of  more  than  five  thou- 
sand, mostly  dark-skinned  people,  and  has  a 

120 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

considerable  trade  in  cattle  and  cacao.  One 
hundred  and  twenty  miles  further  up  is  Obidos, 
a  smaller  town,  also  a  centre  for  the  shipment 
of  cacao.  At  this  point  the  whole  expanse 
of  the  Amazon  is  contracted  into  a  channel  one 
and  a  quarter  miles  wide.  Here  the  depth  of 
water  is  350  feet  [the  greatest  depth  of  the  river 
is  said  to  be  about  975  feet].  But  the  stream 
immediately  broadens  out  again.  There  are 
two  or  three  other  small  towns  and  villages  be- 
tween Para  and  Manaos,  but  they,  as  well  as  the 


THE  BEACH,  SANTAREM 
121 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

larger  towns  just  referred  to,  are  very  primitive 
places,  inhabited  mainly  by  people  of  mixed 
breed. 

As  the  traveller  stands   on   the   deck  of  his 


A  TRADING  STATION 


boat,  say  somewhere  just  above  Obidos,  and 
gazes  upon  the  river  and  along  the  wall  of  forest 
— now  but  a  few  yards  away,  now  dim  and 
shadowy  in  the  distance — he  is  impressed, 
through  his  physical  eye  alone,  with  the  im- 
mensity of  this  waste  of  waters  and  this  wilder- 


122 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

ness  of  low,  jungle-covered  deposit  of  earth  (for 
that  is  what  most  of  the  land  is,  a  mere  deposit). 
But  to  get  a  full  sense  of  the  vastness,  he  must 
let  his  mental  vision  wander  further  and  wider, 
first  east  and  west  over  a  line  3,000  miles  long, 
up  and  down  the  main  river,  then  up  each  of  the 
great  tributaries,  and  then  north  and  south 
over  a  tract  of  some  other  hundreds  of  miles, 
across  the  Amazon  Valley — the  tract  traversed 
by  the  Amazon  itself,  a  plain  abounding  in  lakes, 
swamps,  canals  and  islands.  The  area  of  the 
water  surface  alone,  in  the  Amazon  Valley,  in- 
cluding the  valleys  of  the  tributaries,  cannot  be 
less  than  25,000  square  miles.  The  average 
depth  of  the  main  river  being  about  200  feet, 
and  the  current  sweeping  down  at  the  rate  of 
from  two  to  three  miles  an  hour,  the  mind  of 
the  observer  is  paralyzed  when  it  endeavors  to 
conceive  the  volume  of  water  which  is  thus 
emptied  annually  into  the  sea  from  this  valley. 

Above  Santarem,  as  I  have  said,  the  land  lies 
higher  out  of  the  water.  The  forest  near  the 
river  is  less  dense  :  it  is  not  the  same  impene- 

125 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

trable  wall  of  jungle  as  lower  down  :  you  can 
see  into  it  a  little  way.  The  character  of  the 
trees  and  shrubs  is  less  riotously  wild  and  lux- 
uriant, and  palms  are  not  nearly  so  plentiful. 


A  THOUSAND   MILES  FROM   THE  SEA 

But  there  is  still  an  abundance  and  great  variety 
of  aboreal  and  floral  beauty. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  fourth  day  after 
our  departure  from  Para  we  came  to  the  con- 
fluence of  the  Rio  Negro  and  the  Amazon. 
The  latter  here  makes  a  sharp  bend  to  the 
south,  and  the  Negro,  flowing  straight  into  the 
course  of  the  Amazon,  at  first  appears  to  be  the 
main  stream.  But  there  is  no  mistaking  long 

126 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

which  is  the  great  river  and  which  the  tributary, 
for  the  thick  yellow  waters  of  the  Amazon  are 
seen  to  sweep  the  black-coffee-colored  waters  of 
the  Negro  right  over  to  the  northern  bank,  and 
when  the  two  streams  at  length  intermingle,  the 
black  Negro  does  not  at  all  modify  the  color  of 
the  yellow  Amazon. 


129 


A    CITY    IN    THE   WILDERNESS 

The  city  of  Manaos  is  situated  six  or  seven 
miles  up  the  Rio  Negro,  on  elevated  land. 
During  the  high-river  season  of  the  Amazon, 
however,  in  June,  the  waters  of  the  Rio  Negro 
are  backed  up  for  many  miles,  so  that  the  river- 
level  at  Manaos  is  some  fifty  feet  higher  than  it 
is  in  December,  and  the  site  then  appears  much 
lower. 

A  noted  phenomenon  of  the  Amazon  system 
is  that  the  high-river  season  does  not  occur  at 
the  same  time  in  the  main  stream  and  the  tribu- 
taries, owing  to  the  fact  that  they  are  fed  from 
widely  separated  sources.  The  higher  reaches 

130 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

of  the  Amazon  receive  the  melted  snow  from 
the  Andes.  Most  of  the  other  streams  are 
swelled  by  rainfall. 

Those  of  us  who  had  not  visited  Manaos  be- 


A   BY-WAY   NEAR   MANAOS 


fore  were  astonished,  after  traversing  nearly  a 
thousand  miles  of  wilderness,  to  find  such  a  well- 
built  and  imposing  city  —  more  astonished  than 
we  had  been  at  Para.  We  were  first  of  all  struck 
by  the  great  number  of  large  trading  vessels, 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

some  of  them  ocean  steamers  from  Europe,  that 
lay  in  the  harbor;  and  when  we  went  ashore  we 
were  amazed  to  see  broad  avenues  and  well- 
paved  streets,  a  cathedral,  a  splendid  opera 


THE  MAIN  AVENUE,  MANAOS 


house,  fine  public  buildings  and  residences,  elec- 
tric cars,  electric  lamps,  pretentious  stores, 
restaurants  and  cafes,  parks,  a  merry-go-round, 
and  other  appurtenances  of  a  thoroughly  modern 
town.  "Manaos,"  said  our  young  Yale  wit,  in 

132 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACH1 

describing  the  town,  "  is  known  as  the  Paris  of 
the  Amazon — by  those  who  haven't  been  there." 
But  the  term  might  be  used,  appropriately 
enough,  by  those  who  have  been  there  ;  for  the 
makers  of  Manaos  seem  in  many  things  to  have 
taken  Paris  for  their  model,  and  have  given  the 
place  a  sort  of  Parisian  air. 

The  visitor,  however,  is  soon  reminded  that 
he  is  still  in  the  backwoods.  If  he  gets  thirsty 
—as  he  is  liable  to  do  with  the  temperature  at 
about  95  in  the  shade  and  125  or  130  in  the 
sun — and  sits  down  at  one  of  the  cafe  tables  on 
the  sidewalk  to  take  a  drink,  he  has  to  produce 
something  like  the  equivalent  of  a  dollar  for  his 
beverage;  and,  while  sitting  there,  he  will  see  go 
by  many  men  and  women  of  dark  and  mixed 
breed,  and  but  few  of  pure  white  race;  and  if 
he  jumps  on  a  car  and  rides  out  of  town  a  little 
way,  he  will  find  that  the  simple  life  has  not 
been  altogether  abandoned  here.  Indeed,  he 
need  not  go  out  of  the  main  avenue  to  see  well- 
grown  children  whose  limbs  are  untrammelled 
by  any  stitch  of  clothing,  and  probably  one-half 

135 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


of  the  fifty  thousand  pairs  of  feet  that  walk  in 
the  fair  streets  of  Manaos  and  in  the  woods  of 
the  vicinity  have  never  worn  shoes — for  shoes 

are  needless  to 
them.  The  people 
are  remarkably 
clean  and  orderly, 
and  most  of  them 
receive  at  least  a 
rudimentary  edu- 
cation. The  upper 
class,  the  profes- 
sional men,  mer- 
chants and  gov- 
ernment officials, 
are  typical  of  the 
best  Brazilian  as- 
piration and  cul- 
ture. Manaos  and  Para  are  distinctly  the  most 
progressive  and  modern  cities  in  the  northern 
half  of  South  America. 

We  remained  for  a  week  at  Manaos,  and  the 
prominent  citizens  there  did  their  utmost  to  sur- 

136 


LIVERS   OF  THE  SIMPLE   LIFE 


A  BEAUTY  SPOT   NEAR   MANAOS 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

pass  the  people  of  Para  in  showing  us  honor 
and  hospitality.  They  gave  us  a  banquet  and 
organized  a  rowing  regatta  for  our  entertain- 
ment. To  the  regatta  the  whole  city  seemed  to 
turn  out,  and  hundreds  of  craft  of  every  de- 


AT  THE   REGATTA,    MANAOS 

scription,  from  the  oddest  sort  of  native  dugouts 
and  small  sailing  junks  to  ocean  steamers  of 
several  thousand  tons  burden,  took  some  part 
in  the  function.  The  principal  citizens  and 
their  families  spent  the  afternoon  on  the  Vir- 
ginia out  in  the  stream,  and  appeared  to  enjoy 
themselves  thoroughly. 

139 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

A  steamboat  excursion  on  the  Rio  Negro  was 
also  organized  by  the  citizens,  the  Virginia 
being  the  vessel  of  honor.  Many  prominent 
Manaos  people  came  aboard  on  this  occasion, 
and  the  yacht,  with  all  her  bunting  flying, 
steamed  some  miles  upstream,  thus  establishing 
the  record  of  penetrating  further  into  the  great 
Brazilian  wilderness  of  water  than  any  other 
yacht  had  ever  gone. 

Manaos  is  now  the  principal  market  for  rub- 
ber on  the  Amazon,  having  superseded  Para  in 
this  respect.  All  the  rubber  from  the  tributaries 
in  the  State  of  Amazonas  goes  there  for  classi- 
fication, taxation,  and  sale,  and  it  is  exported 
thence  direct  to  Europe  and  America.  Nearly 
1 7,000  tons,  of  a  value  of  about  $35,000,000,  were 
exported  from  this  centre  last  crop  year.  There 
is  an  export  duty  on  this  product  of  about 
twenty-three  per  cent,  of  its  market  value,  a  simi- 
lar duty  being  levied  at  the  city  of  Para"  on  the 
rubber  from  the  State  of  that  name. 

Immense  revenues  are  thus  derived  by  the 
two  States  of  Para*  and  Amazonas.  And  this 

140 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

explains  why  the  cities  of  Para*  and  Manaos, 
particularly  the  latter,  are  such  imposing  capi- 
tals, with  such  fine  public  buildings  and  works. 
There  being  practically  no  works  or  roads  to 
build  or  maintain,  and  no  development  to  expend 
money  upon  in  the  interior  of  the  country,  almost 
the  whole  of  the  large  revenue  of  the  States  of 
Para  and  Amazonas  is  available  for  expenditure 
in  the  two  chief  towns. 


CLASSING    AND  PACKING  RUBBER.   MANAOS 
141 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


INDIANS  OF    THE  RIO  BRANCO 


THE  AMAZONIAN  INDIANS 

We  were  not 
able  to  see  any- 
thing of  the  life 
of  the  Amazon 
Indians  during 
our  stay  on  the 
River.  Indeed, 
we  encountered 
but  few  pure- 
bred aborigines, 
though  we  came  across  a  pronounced  aboriginal 
strain  in  every  village  and  town.  We  were 
told,  however,  that  the  scanty  population  of  the 
upper  regions  of  the  Amazon  and  its  affluents 
is  mainly  composed  of  Indians  and  half-castes, 
who  have  gradually  been  brought  within  the 
pale  of  civilization  by  communication  with  trad- 
ers and  rubber-gatherers.  At  the  present  time, 
it  is  only  in  the  imperfectly  explored  upper 
reaches  of  the  rivers  that  any  of  the  wild  and 
dangerous  tribes  are  to  be  met  with. 

142 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


The  Amazon  Indians  are  diffident  about  ap- 
proaching towns,  and  they  have  no  more  deal- 
ings with  the 
White  mer- 
chants  and 
settlers  than 
are  required 
for  the  satis- 
f act io  n  of 
their  most 
urgent  wants. 
They  prefer 
to  live  in  soli- 
tude or  with  a 
very  few  even 
of  their  own 
people. 

They  are 
wonderfully 
expert  in  hunting  and  in  catching  fish.  The 
latter  they  generally  shoot  with  arrows  pro- 
jected from  bows  which  are  worked  with  the 
feet.  They  also  kill  their  prey  with  barbed 
spears  and  darts.  They  use  the  blowpipe  with 

145 


AN   AMAZON   INDIAN   CHIEF 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


great    skill.        This    formidable   weapon    is    a 
hollow  reed,  ten  or   twelve   feet   long    through 

which  very 
slender  darts, 
poisoned  at  the 
tip,  are  blown 
with  such  force 
and  precision 
that  an  animal 
or  bird  may  be 
brought  down 
at  a  distance  of 
thirty  yards  or 
more.  The 
great  advan- 
tage of  this 
weapon  is  its 
silence,  the  ambushed  hunter  being  able  to 
shoot  a  number  of  darts  at  his  victim  without 
revealing  his  presence. 

It  is  stated  by  Amazonian  ethnographers  that 
the  Indian  does  not  stand  the  heat  as  well  as 
the  Negro,  and  that  he  suffers  from  it  even 
more  than  the  White  man. 

146 


AN  AMAZON    EVE 


A  YOUNG  BRAVE 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


A  HUNTING  EXCURSION 

While  we  were  at  Mandos,  some  of  us  went 
on  an  interesting  hunting  excursion.  Starting 
from  the  yacht  in  one  of  our  steam  launches  at 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  accompanied 
by  a  pilot,  we  went  down  the  Negro  for  some 
miles  and  turned  first  into  a  lagoon  and  then 
into  an  igarapt  or  long,  narrow  inlet.  Here  at 
daylight  we  had  such  shooting  as  would  ravish 
the  heart  of  any  gun  enthusiast.  Herons,  storks, 
cranes,  ibises,  parrots,  ducks,  and  many  other 
birds  abounded ;  monkeys  fled  from  tree  to  tree 
before  us  ;  an  occasional  sloth  could  be  seen,  with 
his  long  arms  round  a  tree  trunk  crawling  up  at 
a  snail's  pace  ;  huge  turtles  lay  lazily  on  the 
mudbanks;  and  in  the  water,  dark-red  and  gray 
dolphins  sported  near  us,  and  alligators  in  profu- 
sion poked  their  eyes  and  the  top  of  their  skulls 
above  the  surface  for  us  to  shoot  at.  Two  of 
us,  taking  our  courage  in  both  hands,  landed 
and  penetrated  some  distance  into  the  woods  to 

149 


TEN   THOUSAND  MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

investigate  the  great  unknown,  to  "  sense  "  the 
forest  and  get  the  feel  of  it.  We  kept  our  fin- 
gers on  the  triggers  of  our  Winchesters,  but 
there  was  really  little  danger.  Hardly  any  ani- 
mal in  the  Amazonian  forest  will  attack  a  man 
unless  it  is  brought  to  bay.  Even  the  snakes  will 
scuttle  away  at  the  sound  of  a  man's  approach. 
But  we  paid  the  penalty  of  our  intrepidity,  never- 
theless; for  we  found,  on  getting  back  to  the 
launch,  that  our  persons  had  been  invaded  by 
some  sort  of  forest  vermin,  and  we  could  rid 
ourselves  of  them  only  by  the  application  of 
chemical  preparations  on  our  return  to  the  yacht. 

In  spite  of  the  game  we  brought  back,  we 
were  duly  " guyed"  by  those  who  had  stayed  on 
board. 

"  How  much  did  you  have  to  pay  the  natives 
for  those  birds  ?" 

"  You  came  home  by  way  of  the  market,  didn't 
you  ?" 

These  are  samples  of  the  insulting  questions 
that  were  fired  at  us.  One  unfeeling  member 
of  the  party  remarked  that  there  must  have  been 

150 


A   PARADISE   FOR  ALLIGATORS 


RIVER  OR  FOREST-WHICH  SHALL  REIGN? 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

so  much  to  shoot  at  that  we  couldn't  possibly 
have  avoided  killing  something.  "  But,"  he 
added,  "  what  they  hit  is  history,  and  what  they 
missed  is  mystery." 


GETTING   PROVISIONS  OVER   THE  RAPIDS  OF  THE 
RIO   BRANCO 


153 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


PLANT  AND    ANIMAL    LIFE   OF   THE  AMAZON 
VALLEY 

It  is  not  my  in- 
tention to  insert 
here  a  treatise  on 
the  flora  and  the 
fauna  of  the  Ama- 
zon region.  There 
are  plenty  of  books 
on  these  subjects 
to  which  anyone 
sufficiently  inter- 
ested can  readily 
turn.  I  will  merely 
refer  briefly  to  the 
principal  forms  of 
animal  and  plant  life  which  are  to  be  met  with 
along  the  river. 

The  rich,  alluvial  soil,  and  the  warm,  humid 
atmosphere  of  the  Amazon  region  combine  to 
produce  the  most  wonderful  variety  of  vegeta- 
tion that  can  well  be  conceived.  Almost  every 

154 


PART  OF  THE  YACHT'S  MENAGERIE 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

form  of  tree  and  plant,  it  would  seem,  is  repre- 
sented in  these  forests.  There  are  numerous 
kinds  of  gigantic  trees  whose  woods  are  admir- 
ably suited  for  building  and  cabinet-making ; 
there  are  several  species  of  rubber-bearing  trees 
and  vines  ;  there  are  spice-yielding  trees  and 
plants  ;  aromatic  herbs  ;  plants  that  give  many 
of  the  most  useful  of  our  drugs  ;  others  that 
yield  oils  ;  woods  from  which  fine  dyes  may  be 
extracted  ;  others  that  produce  vegetable  ivory  ; 
roots  that  are  excellent  foods  ;  trees  and  shrubs 
that  furnish  textile  fibres,  resins,  gums,  balsams 
and  essences  ;  and  fruits  and  nuts  in  profusion. 
Here  in  this  jungle,  indeed,  is  natural  wealth 
enough  to  set  up  and  maintain  two  or  three 
kingdoms,  could  man  only  live  and  work  in  it 
and  maintain  health  and  comfort.  With  but 
little  labor,  roots  and  seeds  spring  up  and  rap- 
idly mature.  Corn,  coffee,  sugar-cane,  tobacco, 
cocoa  and  all  tropical  fruits  grow  with  a  mini- 
mum of  assistance  from  man.  The  Mandioca 
root  (which  also  yields  the  product  we  call  tap- 
ioca) furnishes  a  flour  called  farinha.  This 

155 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

flour  is  the  staff  of  life  of  the  Amazon  popula- 
tion, much  more  so  indeed  than  bread  is  the 
staff  of  life  with  us  of  the  Temperate  Zone. 
Palm  trees  of  many  varieties  are  to  be  seen 
everywhere,  but  particularly  on  the  Lower 
Amazon.  Orchids  of  strange  form  and  brilliant 
coloring,  and  tree  flowers  which,  in  the  mass, 
often  look,  from  a  distance,  like  patches  of  yel- 
low or  red  flame,  afford  a  pleasing  relief  from 
the  eternal  green  of  the  forest. 

Like  the  plant  life,  the  animal  life  of  the 
Amazon  country  is  amazingly  abundant  and  va- 
ried. Nearly  every  known  family  of  animals, 
excepting  the  enormous  quadrupeds  of  the  des- 
erts and  plains  of  the  Old  World,  is  represented. 
There  are  at  least  eight  species  of  monkeys, 
probably  many  more.  There  are  two  species  of 
the  feline  order — the  spotted  panther  and  the 
tiger-cat.  Of  the  canine  tribe,  there  are  the  red 
wolf  and  the  Brazilian  wild  dog.  Of  the  weasel 
family,  there  are  the  Brazilian  otter  and  two  or 
three  other  species.  There  are  several  sorts  of 
quadrumana  belonging  to  the  omniverous  class. 

156 


THE  AMAZONIAN  JUNGLE 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

In  the  order  of  ruminants,  there  is  nearly  every 
species  of  deer — the  paludosus  of  the  marshes, 
the  rufus  of  the  higher  lands,  the  campestris  of 
the  plains,  and  the  nemorivagus,  a  small  animal 
which  lives  mostly  on  the  shrubby  land.  Of  the 
pachyderms,  there  is  the  tapir,  the  largest  mam- 
mal of  the  Amazon  region,  whose  skin  is  as 
thick  and  tough  as  the  elephant's.  There  are 
three  kinds  of  wild  pig.  The  rodent  class  is 
represented  by  half  a  dozen  species,  and  there 
are  more  than  that  number  of  varieties  of  the 
toothless  order,  which  live  entirely  on  ants, 
worms  and  insects.  Then  there  is  the  sloth,  a 
most  ungainly,  harmless,  and  pathetic-looking 
creature.  There  are  three  or  four  kinds  of  vam- 
pires and  several  sorts  of  bats.  The  marsupials 
are  represented  by  the  sariguea  and  the  didel- 
phis  murina.  Snakes  of  every  description 
abound,  from  harmless  little  things  a  few  inches 
long  to  the  deadly  rattle-snake  and  the  enor- 
mous boa-scytale  which  will  crush  an  ox  or  a 
tapir  to  death  and  devour  it  bones  and  all.  Of 
the  order  of  the  cetaceans,  there  is  the  great 

159 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

peixe-boi  or  cow-fish,  the  largest  fresh-water  fish 
in  the  world,  and  the  boto  or  Amazon  dolphin. 
The  former  is  herbivorous  and  the  latter  carni- 
verous.  The  cow-fish  attains  a  length  of  ten 
feet  and  its  flesh  is  said  to  be  a  very  good  food. 
There  are  two  kinds  of  dolphin,  called  the  white 
and  the  red,  though  in  the  water  they  appear 
gray  and  dark-brown.  The  former  is  harmless, 
the  latter  is  very  dangerous.  They  go  in  schools, 
and  are  constantly  seen  following  large  and  small 
craft  and  coming  to  the  surface  to  breathe. 
Turtles  and  alligators  are  extremely  plenti- 
ful. Turtle  meat  is  the  beef  and  mutton  of  the 
Amazon,  and  is  served  at  the  tables  of  rich 
and  poor  alike  at  least  two  or  three  times  a 
week. 

Agassiz,  the  great  naturalist,  says  that  "  the 
Amazon  nourishes  about  twice  as  many  species 
of  fish  as  the  Mediterranean,  and  a  more  con- 
siderable number  than  the  Atlantic  Ocean  from 
one  pole  to  the  other."  The  most  important 
fish,  the  one  which,  next  to  turtle  meat  and 
farinha,  is  the  chief  article  of  food  in  the  coun- 

160 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

try,  is  the  piraructi  or  redfish.  Notable  among 
the  denizens  of  the  Amazon  waters  and  swamps 
is  the  electric  eel,  which,  upon  coming  into  con- 
tact with  cattle  on  the  banks  of  the  lakes  and 


PART  OF  THE  YACHT'S  MENAGERIE-MACAW  AND   PARROTS 

rivers,  gives   them  a  shock  strong  enough  to 
knock  them  down. 

The  birds  of  the  Amazon  region,  too,  present 
an  extraordinary  variety.  I  will  not  attempt  to 
mention  more  than  a  few.  There  are  two  species 
of  vultures,  twenty-three  of  hawks,  and  eight  of 

161 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

owls.  Notable  among  the  many  singing  birds 
are  the  bright-yellow  sabid,  which  has  a  strong 
and  melodious  but  unvarying  voice;  the  hum- 
ming bird  ;  the  bem-te-vi,  which  hops  from 
branch  to  branch;  and  the  black  and  yellow 
chechtO)  which  builds  a  long,  sleeve-shaped  nest 
and  hangs  it  from  the  branches  of  the  highest 
trees.  There  are  many  kinds  of  pigeons.  Of 
the  climbing  species,  there  is  a  great  variety,  of 
all  sizes  :  these  are  invariably  green,  or  green 
and  yellow.  There  are  the  macaws  and  the 
toucans,  the  maracanas  and  the  paroquets.  The 
web-footed  tribes,  of  course,  are  legion.  One 
of  the  most  notable  of  these  is  the  guard  (ibis 
rubra)  whose  feathers  change  color  as  the  bird 
ages.  The  pheasant  class  is  represented  by 
half  a  dozen  varieties.  The  waders,  too,  are 
everywhere  in  evidence. 

If,  while  on  the  river,  the  traveller  takes  the 
trouble  to  get  up  at  daybreak,  he  will  be  re- 
warded by  a  sight  which  he  will  never  after- 
wards forget — the  sight  of  the  feathered  myriads 
of  the  forest  and  the  swamps  seeking  their 

162 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

morning  meal.  Later  in  the  day,  one  might 
think  that  there  was  not  a  living  creature,  except 
insects,  within  twenty  miles. 

Truly  this  is  a  paradise  for  birds  and  beasts 
and  fishes.  And  what  a  world  of  beautiful, 
curious,  monstrous,  and  fantastic  creatures  has 
been  evolved  in  the  conditions  here  pertaining! 


THE  TURTLE  MARKET,  MANAOS 


I63 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

TURNING   HOMEWARD 

We  left  Manaos  on  the  evening  of  January 
1 9th,  after  a  stay  of  eight  days.  As  we  quitted 
our  mooring  out  in  the  river  and  turned  down 


A  VILLAGE   NEAR   IQUITOS 

stream,  the  whole  city  seemed  to  be  watching 
our  departure  and  waving  us  a  cordial  farewell. 

"  I'm  glad  we  got  away  by  sunset,"  said  the 
Commodore. 

"I'm  glad  we  got  away,  by  Heaven!"  re- 

164 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

joined  our  principal  witmaker.  He  had  had 
all  he  wanted  of  the  "  inland  sea,"  and  was  rather 
knocked  up  by  the  heat,  but  he  had  no  intention 
whatever  of  casting  any  aspersion  on  the  good 


THE  RIO  BRANCO-A  TRIBUTARY  OF  A  TRIBUTARY 

people  of  the  town,  whose  reception  and  enter- 
tainment of  us  could  not  have  been  more  cordial. 
It  was  Commodore  Benedict's  intention  at 
one  time  to  take  the  yacht  right  up  to  Iquitos, 
2,200  miles  from  the  ocean,  for  the  river  is  easily 

165 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

navigable  to  that  point  and  large  steamers  from 
Europe  penetrate  that  far.  But  we  found  on 
reaching  Manaos  that  we  had  little  to  gain  in  ex- 
perience or  pleasure  by  going  further  ;  for  the 
thousand  miles  of  the  Amazon  which  we  had  seen 
had  shown  practically  every  phenomenon  of  the 
river  that  we  could  possibly  see  by  ascending  an- 
other 1,200  miles.  The  Commodore  remarked 
that  it  would  simply  be  "  *  and  so  forth '  scenery." 


A  TRADING  CENTRE 
166 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

AGRICULTURE  ON  THE  AMAZON 

Coming  down  the  river  we  kept  to  the  middle 
of  the  stream  nearly  all  the  way,  to  get  the  bene- 
fit of  the  current. 

We  stopped  for  two  or  three  hours  at  San- 
tarem,  a  good  place  to  get  monkeys,  parrots,  and 
curios,  with  which  we  duly  loaded  up.  Some 
eighty  Americans,  we  were  told,  Southern  Con- 
federates, settled  here  after  the  American  civil 
war,  and  engaged  in  agricultural  and  pastoral 
pursuits.  Only  two  or  three  of  these  now  re- 
mained. One  keeps  a  tumble-down  store  and 
another  has  a  prosperous  cattle  ranch.  We  had 
a  very  interesting  "yarn"  with  each  of  these 
voluntary  exiles. 

The  same  day  we  landed  further  down  at  the 
most  important  ranch  on  this  part  of  the  river, 
Cacaol  Grande,  where  we  were  very  hospitably 
received  by  the  proprietor,  a  young  Brazilian  of 
good  type  and  refinement.  He  showed  us  over 
his  place,  where  he  raises  horses  and  cattle, 
cacao,  beans  and  maize,  and  dries  large  quan- 

167 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

titles  of  fish.  When  we  left  he  very  kindly  sent 
aboard  the  yacht  a  boatload  of  the  products 
of  his  ranch.  He  informed  us  that  ranching 
there  would  be  exceedingly  profitable  if  it  were 


A  GIFT  BOATLOAD  OF  PLANTATION   PRODUCTS 

only  possible  to  get  men  to  labor.  But  such 
laboring  men  as  care  to  live  on  the  Amazon  pre- 
fer the  free,  meagre,  lazy  existence  of  the  rubber- 
gatherer.  We  were  exceedingly  interested  in 
looking  over  this  ranch-plantation,  but  none  of 

168 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

us  would  have  cared  to  lead  the  lonely  life  of 
the  proprietor  and  his  pathetic  little  wife. 

Many  optimistic  people  look  forward  to  the 
time  when  the  Amazon  country  will  be  thickly 


NAVIGATION  ON  THE  SMALL  RIVERS 

populated  and  prosperous  plantations  will  oc- 
cupy the  river  front  on  each  side  for  thousands 
of  miles.  I  am  aware  that  it  is  generally  as  rash 
a  thing  to  foretell  what  will  not  happen  as  to 
predict  what  will  happen ;  but  I  cannot  see  in 

169 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

the  future  the  thick  population  and  the  prosper- 
ous plantations  that  have  been  prophesied. 
There  certainly  will  be  development  on  the 
higher  lands ;  but  on  the  lower  Amazon,  for 
some  hundreds  of  miles,  there  seems  little  pros- 
pect of  reclaiming  the  alluvial  flats  from  the 
grip  of  the  river.  A  great  deal  of  this  land  is 
submerged  in  the  high-river  season,  and  if  the 
forest  were  stripped  from  it,  the  river  would  eat 
it  up  like  so  much  salt. 

As  for  the  upriver  region,  the  whole  popula- 
tion of  the  immense  State  of  Amazonas  does  not 
amount  to  400,000 — and  the  habitable  portion  of 
this  State  is  estimated  to  be  1,185,000  square 
miles  in  extent ! 

Only  on  the  banks  of  the  principal  rivers  and 
tributaries,  and  of  the  lakes,  where  rubber  is  to 
be  found,  is  there  any  noticeable  indication  of 
human  life.  There  are  rivers,  even  close  to 
Manaos  (such  as  the  Janapery,  which  is  only  170 
miles  away),  whose  banks  are  quite  uninhabited 
by  civilized  people.  Thousands  of  square  miles 
of  the  territory  of  the  State  have  never  been 

170 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

exploited   in  any  way  and  have  been  but  very 
imperfectly  explored. 

There    is    hardly    any    immigration    to   the 


DISEMBARKING  ON  THE   EDGE  OF  THE  JUNGLE 

Amazon  country  from  foreign  lands,  the  hardy 
native  Brazilian  alone  venturing  to  make  a 
home  in  these  forests. 

Owing  to  the  importance  of  the  commerce  in 

171 


TEN   THOUSAND   MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

rubber,  however,  all  the  large  rivers  are  regu- 
larly served  by  modern  steamers  from  Par&  or 
Mangos.  On  some  of  the  rivers,  where  it  is  im- 
possible for  steamers  to  navigate,  launches  of 
light  draught  are  used  by  the  traders,  who  push 
their  way  with  astonishing  intrepidity  into  re- 
gions that  seem  altogether  inaccessible. 


NEGOTIATING  THE  RAPIDS  OF  THE  UPPER  TAPAJOS 


172 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


BACK  TO  PARA 

We  made  another  stop  at  Breves,  a  small  vil- 
lage among  the  Islands  of  the  Narrows — where  a 


INSTITUTING  THE  WIRELESS  TELEGRAPH   ON  THE  AMAZON 

station  of  the  Amazon  Wireless  Telegraph,  in 
which  some  of  our  party  were  concerned,  was 
being  completed — and  then  continued  our  course 

173 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

to    Para,  which  we  reached  on  the  morning  of 
December  23d. 

We  spent  Christmas  Day  here  very  quietly, 
and  in  the  night  sailed  over  to  Soure,  on  the 


"  THE  FOREST  PUSHES"RIGHT  INTOjTHE  RIVER  " 

Island  of  Maraj6,  forty  miles  away,  where  we 
awoke  next  morning.  We  went  there  to  get 
some  tarpon  fishing  and  stayed  a  couple  of 
days.  The  sport,  however,  was  not  at  all  lively, 
though  we  landed  one  good-sized  tarpon  and  a 
number  of  queer-looking  fish,  whose  names  I 
will  not  attempt  to  spell. 

We  spent  nearly  a  week  more  at  Para,  and 
174 


TEN    THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

one  day  took  the  opportunity  of  going  off  in  our 
big  launch  to  the  Ihla  das  On  fas  —  the  Island 
of  Tiger-Cats — where  we  saw  the  seringueiros 
gathering  rubber. 


COMMODORE  BENEDICT  ASSISTING  AT  RUBBER-SMOKING 
OPERATIONS 


175 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 


RUBBER   GATHERING 


There  are  sev- 
eral trees  and 
shrubs  which 
yield  rubber,  but 
the  principal 
source  of  the 
supply  is  the 
Hevea  Brasil- 
iensisy  a  tree 
which  attains  to 
a  height  of  fifty 
or  sixty  feet. 
The  coagulated 
milk  of  this  tree 
is  the  crude 
"  Para"  rubber  of  our  market,  which  now  sells 
at  about  $1.25  to  $1.35  per  pound  for  fine 
quality. 

To  obtain  it,  the  seringueiro  makes  incisions 
in  the  bark  of  the  living  tree  with  a  small 
hatchet,  and  below  the  incisions  attaches  small 

176 


THE  HEVEA  RUBBER  TREE 


>-  ^ 
•<  -J 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

tin  cups.  The  sap,  which  is  just  like  milk,  oozes 
for  about  an  hour,  and  partly  fills  the  little  cups. 
When  the  seringueiro  has  tapped  the  last  of  the 
hundred  or  so  of  trees  in  his  charge,  he  returns 
to  the  first  and  begins  collecting  the  rubber-milk 
from  the  little  tin  cups.  The  small  pailful  which 
he  thus  obtains  every  morning,  when  there  is  no 
rain,  is  then  taken  to  his  hut  and  the  liquid  is 
coagulated  and  cured  by  a  process  of  smoking. 

A  fire  is  made  of  Uauassu  or  Urucury  palm 
nuts,  which  give  forth  a  dense,  acrid  smoke. 
Over  this  fire  is  placed  an  earthen  cone-shaped 
vessel  with  a  hole  in  the  top,  out  of  which  the 
smoke  escapes. 

The  seringueiro  then  takes  a  piece  of  wood, 
shaped  like  a  paddle,  and  dips  it  into  the  milk, 
some  of  which  clings  to  the  wood.  This  is  then 
held  over  the  smoke,  when  much  of  the  water  in 
the  latex  evaporates,  leaving  a  layer  of  brown 
gum  on  the  paddle.  Layer  after  layer  is  smoked 
on  to  the  paddle  in  this  way,  and  the  operation  is 
continued  day  after  day,  until  a  ball  of  fifty  or 
sixty  pounds  is  obtained.  In  this  form  the  rub- 

179 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

her  is  sent  to  the  rubber  market  at  Para  or 
Mangos.  If  the  seringueiro  has  been  careful  in 
smoking  the  milk,  and  has  allowed  no  foreign 


OVERTAPPED   RUBBER  TREES 

matter  to  get  into  it,  the  rubber  is  classed  as 
Fine  when  the  ball  is  cut  open  at  the  market. 
If  it  has  not  been  well  smoked,  it  is  classed 
as  Entrefino  Medium,  and  the  waste,  of  which 

180 


SMOKING  RUBBER 


HEADQUARTERS  OF  RUBBER  RANCHES 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

there  is  usually  a  good  proportion,  is  known  as 
Sernamby  or  Coarse. 

Last  crop  year,  ending  June  3Oth,  1905,  more 
than  33,000  tons  of  rubber  of  a  value  of  nearly 
$67,000,000  were  exported  from  the  Amazonian 
forests. 


BISCUITS"   OF  SMOKED   RUBBER 


183 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 


GOOD-BYE   TO   THE    AMAZON 

We  finally  left  Par£  on  the  evening  of  Janu- 
ary 2d,  after  having  spent  just  a  month  on  the 
Amazon.  We  were  all  agreed  that  the  greatest 


CARRYING  RUBBER  TO  THE  RIVER  FOR  SHIPMENT 

of  rivers  was  quite  as  marvellous  and  interesting 
as  we  had  read  or  been  told  it  was;  and  though 
after  a  month  we  had  all  had  enough  of  it,  not 
one  of  us  would  have  missed  for  anything  the 
rare  opportunity  afforded  by  the  most  genial 

184 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

and  liberal  of  hosts  of  seeing  the  wonders  of 
the  mighty  stream  and  its  amazing  forests  under 
conditions  of  comfort  and  immunity  from  the 
worst  of  the  many  trials  that  ordinarily  beset 
the  traveller  in  these  regions. 

We  had  brought  with  us  a  goodly  store  of 
fireworks,  and  just  as  we  were  leaving  Par£ 
these  were  handed  over  to  the  crew,  who  illum- 
inated the  yacht  with  them  and  shot  a  large 
number  of  fine  rockets  into  the  night  as  a  part- 
ing salutation  to  the  city  and  the  river. 


187 


DEATH    AND    SUICIDE    IN    THE 
MENAGERIE. 

E  fireworks  referred  to,  unfortunately, 
were  the  cause  of  a  slaughter  and  a  suicide. 
Among  the  many  live  animals  we  had  collected 
up  the  river  were  two  pacas — a  sort  of  small, 
comely-looking  native  pig.  These  two  pacas 
were  kept  on  deck  behind  the  wooden  grating 
that  runs  round  the  stern  of  the  yacht.  While 
the  fireworks  were  being  let  off  by  the  crew,  a 
barrel,  containing  a  powerful  rocket  which  had 
just  been  ignited,  capsized,  or  else  the  rocket 
shot  out  at  the  wrong  end — no  one  seems  to 
know  just  what  happened.  But  at  any  rate,  one 
of  the  poor  pacas  was  killed.  This  we  did  not 
know  at  the  time.  Next  evening,  when  we  were 
out  on  the  ocean,  some  one  thought  of  letting 
the  pacas  out  on  deck  for  exercise.  One  of 
them  came  out  willingly  enough.  The  other 
one  would  not  budge.  But  it  was  not  mere 

188 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

pig-headedness  that  made  him  stay  where  he 
was.  He  really  had  a  very  good  reason  for 
not  stirring ;  he  was  dead.  The  other  fellow 
immediately  jumped  up  on  the  taffrail  and  com- 
menced to  walk  round  the  extreme  stern  of  the 
yacht,  stretching  his  neck  out  seawards  and 
apparently  estimating  the  distance  of  the  drop 
to  the  water.  Whether  he  imagined  the  sea 
was  a  plain,  over  which  he  could  scamper, 
or  whether  he  knew  it  was  water,  and,  being  a 
swimmer,  thought  he  could  breast  his  way 
through  it  to  his  native  forest,  no  one  can  tell. 
We  could  see  he  was  contemplating  a  jump  and 
we  did  our  best  to  prevent  him.  But  he  took 
the  plunge  and  disappeared  into  the  ocean  and 
the  night.  Poor  fellow,  he  doubtless  made  a 
tasty  supper,  that  evening,  for  some  rapacious 
sea  monster. 


189 


ALONG    THE    COAST   OF   SOUTH 
AMERICA 

^  I  ^HE  day  after  leaving  Para,  January  3rd,  we 
-*•       found  ourselves  steaming  merrily  up  the 
Brazilian  coast. 

The  water  had  lost  a  good  deal  of  its  yel- 
lowness, but  was  still  of  a  dark  olive-green — 
the  effect  of  the  Amazon  water  which  is  carried 
up  by  the  strong  current  that  always  sets  north 
along  this  coast.  The  sea  was  smooth,  but 
there  was  enough  roll  to  set  the  yacht  swinging 
again.  In  the  afternoon,  we  were  off  the  coast 
of  French  Guiana,  and  just  before  sunset  we 
sighted  the  famous,  or  infamous,  lie  du  Diable — 
Devil's  Island — where  the  ill-starred  Dreyfus 
spent  four  years  in  solitary  captivity.  We  passed 
within  twelve  or  thirteen  miles  of  the  island.  As 
we  came  abreast  of  it,  the  sun  sank  over  and  be- 
hind it,  enveloping  it  in  a  weird  conflagration  of 
orange  and  violet  and  light  green  hues,  and  this 

190 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

effect  added  to  the  strange  feelings  with  which 
we  regarded  the  prison-island. 

The  next  day  the  water  had  lost  all  trace  of 
the  yellow  Amazon,  and  had  again  become  a 
vast  expanse  of  liquid  sapphire.  The  sea  was 
heavier,  but  the  day  was  delightfully  cool  and 
clear. 

On  January  5th,  the  sea  had  gone  down 
somewhat,  but  we  still  rolled  too  much  for  com- 
fort. The  current  running  with  us  here  was  so 
powerful  that  we  found  we  were  spanking  along 
at  the  rate  of  nearly  fifteen  knots  an  hour. 

A   TRUE    FISH    STORY 

Here  I  must  tell  a  fish  story.  It  is  such  a  re- 
markable fish  story  that  if  I  myself  had  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  catching  of  that  fish,  I 
shouldn't  dare  mention  the  matter.  But  /  didn't 
catch  him.  Nobody  did.  He  caught  himself. 

This  is  what  happened,  and  how  it  happened. 

It  was  the  evening  of  January  5th,  about  ten 
o'clock.  The  yacht  was  gliding  through  the  Sea 
at  nearly  fifteen  knots  an  hour,  and  rolling  about 

191 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

twenty-five  degrees.  One  of  the  stewards  was 
sitting  in  the  dining-room  (the  dining-room  of 
the  Virginia  is  on  deck,  forward).  He  was  doz- 
ing and  dreaming — doubtless  of  the  girl  he  left 
behind.  Suddenly  he  was  awakened  by  some- 
thing swishing  through  the  open  window,  over 
his  right  shoulder,  close  to  his  face.  Before  he 
could  open  his  eyes,  he  heard  the  flop  of  some- 
thing weighty  on  the  floor  beneath  the  dining- 
room  table,  and  then,  to  his  amazement,  he  saw 
the  gleaming  back  of  a  good-sized,  tail-flapping, 
all-alive-o  fish.  A  brother  steward  was  immed- 
iately summoned,  then  nearly  the  whole  crew, 
and  the  fish  was  duly  measured  and  weighed. 
The  official  report  made  him  2  feet  3  inches 
long,  and  gave  him  3^  pounds  avoirdupois.  He 
certainly  made  a  famous  leap,  to  get  out  of  the 
sea  into  that  dining-room.  Allowing  for  a  pos- 
sible lurch  of  the  yacht  in  his  direction  at  the 
moment  of  his  jump,  he  still  must  have  leaped 
in  a  curve  over  twenty  feet  long  in  order  to  clear 
the  railing  of  the  yacht  and  the  passage-way  be- 
tween the  railing  and  the  dining-room,  and  to 

192 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

pass  through  the  window  and  land  under  the 
table. 

We  showed  our  appreciation  of  the  remark- 
able feat  of  this  athletic  fish  by  making  an  en- 
joyable meal  of  him  the  following  morning.  As 
there  were  at  that  breakfast  at  least  one  mil- 
lionaire and  some  strange  fellows,  we  might  have 
sung  the  fish's  requiem  in  the  words  of  Ariel 
in  "  The  Tempest  " — 

"  Nothing  of  him  that  doth  fade 
But  doth  suffer  a  sea-change 
Into  something  rich  and  strange" 

In  our  party  was  a  former  Fish  Commissioner 
of  the  State  of  New  York.  This  irrefutable 
authority  pronounced  the  long-jumper  to  be  a 
Spanish  mackerel. 


195 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


TRINIDAD 

The  sixth  of  January  was 
a  glorious  day,  the  sun  full 
and  strong,  but  so  tempered 
by  the  ocean  breeze  that  one 
could  lie  in  it  for  half-an- 
hour  at  a  time,  without  be- 
ing over-roasted,  and  derive 
a  keen  satisfaction  from 
letting  it  pervade  the  fibres 
of  one's  being  —  a  satisfac- 
tion which  was  easily  en- 
hanced by  the  thought  that 
in  New  York,  our  regular 
habitat,  the  thermometer 
at  that  moment  was  regis- 
tering zero. 

In  the  afternoon,  we 
sighted  first  the  beautiful  Island  of  Tobago 
(Robinson  Crusoe's  Island)  and  then  that 
earthly  paradise  which  is  called  Trinidad.  We 

196 


TRINIDAD   COOLIE 
TYPES-I 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

reached  the  northeast  corner  of  the  latter  about 
5.30  P.  M.,  and  sailed  along  the  north  coast, 
getting,  while  the  light  lasted,  a  fine  panoramic 
view  of  its  imposing  mountain  ranges  and 
forest  slopes,  and  its  prosperous-looking  little 


A  PALM   GROVE,  TRINIDAD 

villages  by  the  sea.  We  made  the  northwest 
corner  of  the  island  at  10  o'clock  that  night, 
went  carefully  through  the  Dragon's  Mouth — a 
narrow  channel  between  the  main  island  and  a 
smaller  one  —  into  the  Gulf  of  Paria,  and 

197 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

dropped  anchor  off  Port   of    Spain  shortly  be- 
fore midnight. 

At  daylight  next  morning  we  found  ourselves 
surrounded  by  a  fleet  of  rowboats,  full  of  sturdy, 


NEAR   PORT  OF  SPAIN,   TRINIDAD 


jolly,  gayly-dressed  black  gentlemen  and  ladies 
anxious  to  wash  our  linen  and  sell  us  things  for 
which  we  had  neither  use  nor  tolerance.  But 
the  water  police  would  not  allow  them  to  come 
right  alongside;  for  we  were  under  a  ban:  we 

198 


(1)  ROPE  TREE    (2)  BAMBOO  GROVE,  TRINIDAD 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

had  come  from  the  region  of  fevers,  though  we 
were  all  manifestly  in  good  health. 

At   first,  the   medical   officers  seemed  deter- 
mined not  to  let  us  land  without  subjecting  us 


IN  PORT  OF  SPAIN,  TRINIDAD 


to  a  period  of  quarantine.  For  two  or  three 
hours  we  had  to  kick  our  heels  impatiently,  un- 
certain whether  we  should  get  ashore  at  all,  or 
whether  we  should  be  obliged  to  weigh  anchor 
and  slink  off  northward  without  ever  coming 


201 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


into  closer  contact 
with  this  beaute- 
ous, happy-looking 
land,  which,  a 
couple  of  miles 
away,  there  be- 
yond the  harbor- 
front,  seemed  to  be 
beckoning  to  us 
and  promising  so 
much  delight. 

Finally,  how- 
ever, we  did  get 
permission  to  land. 
And  then,  for  two 
days  and  a  half,  the  yacht  saw  very  little  of  us, 
except  at  sleeptime;  for  we  found  Trinidad  quite 
as  fascinating  as  it  had  promised  to  be.  We 
enjoyed  the  hospitality  and  culinary  resources 
of  the  principal  hotel,  took  never-to-be-forgotten 
drives  round  the  shore,  through  the  pictures, 
que  Coolie  village,  out  into  the  country,  among 
the  hills,  through  cacao  plantations,  and  up  to 


' 


A  WEST  INDIAN   MULATTO 


202 


THE   BLUE    BASIN  WATERFALL,   TRINIDAD 


A  CACAO  PLANTATION,  TRINIDAD 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

the    Blue    Basin  Waterfall.     We  could  not  get 
enough    of   this   luminous,  caressing   air,    this 
largess     of     balm- 
breathing     foliage, 
this  varied    profus- 
ion   of    tropical 
flowers    and    fruit, 
this    rich,   peaceful 
nature-beauty     and 
grandeur. 

Port  of  Spain,  the 
capital,  is  a  fine 
town,  well  laid  out, 
with  clean  streets, 
excellent  stores, 
handsome  public 
buildings,  artistic 

A  CACAO  TREE 

private    mansions 

and  villas,  and  one  of  the  finest  botanical  gar- 
dens in  the  world.  Flanking  the  city  is  a  glor- 
ious mountain-range  covered  with  dense  forest. 
There  is  a  much  larger  proportion  of  white 
people  here  than  in  the  other  islands  of  the 

205 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

Lesser  Antilles,  and  the  place  has  the  appear- 
ance of  enjoying  great  prosperity.  It  seems, 
too,  to  be  governed  with  that  combination  of 


DRYING  CACAO   BEANS,   TRINIDAD 

tact,  skill,  firmness,  understanding,  considera- 
tion, and  civic  honor,  which  has  done  so  much 
for  English  colonies  all  over  the  world.  The 
chief  products  are  cacao,  sugar,  fruits,  and 
natural  pitch. 

206 


TRINIDAD  COOLIE  TYPES-II-A  RICH   MAN'S  WIFE 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

Trinidad  has  practically  solved  its  labor  prob- 
lem by  assisting  the  immigration  of  large  num- 
bers of  East 
Indian  cool- 
ies. There 
are  at  present 
some  80,000 
of  these  on 
the  island. 
The  climate, 
resembling 
that  of  parts 
of  India  and 
Ceylon,  is 
particularly 
suited  to 
them,  and 
they  feel 
quite  athome 

TRINIDAD    COOLIE    TYPES— III 

under    these 

skies  and  in  these  warm  forests.  They  have 
brought  with  them  their  simple  Eastern  form 
of  civilization,  with  its  customs,  dress,  and  in- 

209 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


stitutions.     Their   presence,  besides  being  one 
of  the  bases  of  Trinidad's  prosperity,  adds  very 

much  to  the 
grace  and  charm 
and  picturesque- 
ness  of  the 
island,  giving  it 
quite  an  Orient- 
al touch. 

We  regret- 
fully left  Port  of 
Spain  after 
luncheon 
January 
Emerging  from 
the  Gulf  of  Paria 
as  we  had  entered  it,  by  way  of  the  Dragon's 
Mouth,  we  took  a  course  a  little  north  of  west. 
Immediately  we  ran  into  high-bounding  seas, 
and  were  driven  along  by  powerful  trade  winds. 


A   TRINIDAD  COOLIE   FAKIR 


on 


210 


VENEZUELA 

TN  the  night  we  reached  La  Guayra,  the  chief 
-^  Venezuelan  port,  which  has  been  the  scene 
and  sometimes  the  cause  of  much  political  and 
international  turmoil  during  the  past  few  years. 
Next  morning,  after  an  early  breakfast,  our 
whole  party  (with  the  exception  of  the  present 
writer  who  was  laid  low  for  a  few  days  at  this 
stage  by  some  nondescript  form  of  tropical 
fever — apparently  and  fortunately  not  contagi- 
ous) went  ashore  and  took  the  train  over  the 
mountains  to  Caracas,  the  capital  of  the  country, 
some  twenty-five  miles  by  rail,  though  it  is  only 

213 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


about  seven  as  the  crow  flies.  The  party  re- 
turned before  sundown,  reporting  a  very  inter- 
esting rail-journey  over  the  mountain,  and 
bringing  back  trophies  of  Panama  hats.  They 
were  not  impressed  by  the  capital  city,  however, 

declaring  that  it 
compared  unfav- 
orably, as  far  as 
evidences  of  vi- 
tality and  prog- 
ress were  con- 
cerned, with 
most  of  the 
other  places  we  had  visited  during  our  cruise. 
As  for  La  Guayra,  it  is  a  dirty,  God-forsaken- 
looking  place  built  on  the  precipitous  flank  of 
a  mountain.  The  little  houses  look  as  if  they 
might  at  any  moment  slip  off  their  niches  and 
slide  into  the  harbor.  Two  constructions  stand 
out  conspicuously  on  the  mountainside  :  one  is 
a  fort,  the  other  a  bull-ring.  The  fort  would 
make  a  fine  target  for  any  little  shooting  prac- 
tice that  a  small  fleet  of  battleships  might  care 

214 


A  STREET  IN  CARACAS,  VENEZUELA 


TEN   1HOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

to  indulge  in.  They  would  surely  pound  it  to 
dust  in  a  couple  of  hours. 

Yellow  fever  and  smallpox  were  prevalent  in 
La  Guayra  while  we  were  there,  but  nobody 
seemed  to  be  much  concerned  on  this  account ; 
it  was  not  an  unusual  condition. 

As  one  day  was  sufficient  to  satisfy  our 
curiosity  in  regard  to  this  country,  there  was  no 
temptation  to  stay  longer,  and  we  got  away  dur- 
ing the  evening. 


ON  THE  GREAT  LAGOON,  CURACAO 


215 


CURACAO 

j 

Early  next  morning,  we  sighted  the  Dutch 
Island-colony  of  Cura£ao.  To  those  of  us  who 
had  not  been  there  before  this  curious  little 
coral  land  was  a  surprise  and  a  delight.  Will- 
emstad,  the  harbor  and  capital,  with  its  great 
lagoon,  whose  arms  reach  in  every  direction,  is  a 
sort  of  little  Dutch  Venice.  The  town  is  re- 
markably clean  and  picturesque,  and  really 
artistic  and  beautiful  effects  have  been  produced 
with  the  simplest  and  crudest  of  materials  and 
colors.  The  houses  are  built  of  coralline  rock, 
in  the  Dutch  style,  and  they  are  gayly  but  not  at 

216 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

all  loudly  painted  in  ochre  and  brick-red,  with 
broad  borders  of  white  at  the  angles  and  on  the 
roofs. 

The  population  is  made  up  of  a  peculiar  mix- 
ture    of     peoples — Dutch,     South     American 


WILLEMSTAD   HARBOR,  CURACAO 


Spaniards  and  Portuguese,  and  Negroes.  The 
island  is  almost  bare  of  vegetation  and  there 
seems  to  be  but  little  agriculture  on  it.  Indeed, 
there  is  hardly  any  soil.  We  wondered  what 
the  people  did  for  an  existence.  When  we  put 

217 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

a  question  on  this  head  to  the  living  encyclo- 
paedia who  was  one  of  our  party,  he  laughed 
and  answered — "  They  take  in  each  other's  wash- 
ing." But  we  heard  it  whispered  around  as  an 
open  secret  that  the  island  owes  its  prosperity, 
in  a  large  measure,  to  the  advantage  it  takes  of 
its  facilities  for  shipping  contraband  goods  to 
neighboring  republics  with  high  tariffs. 

Willemstad  is  unique  as  a  port,  having  neither 
a  custom  house  nor  a  quarantine. 

We  spent  seven  or  eight  hours  inspecting  the 
quaint  town,  enjoying  the  new  experience  of 
purchasing  dutiless  commodities,  and  touring 
the  lagoon  in  our  large  launch. 


218 


A  RECORD    ROLL— AND    OTHERS 

N  leaving  Curasao,  just  before  sunset,  we  ran 
into  very  heavy  seas.  That  night  the  yacht 
rolled  more  than  at  any  time  during  the  cruise. 
Our  clinometer  registered  a  roll  of  37  degrees, 
and  we  had  great  difficulty  in  keeping  in  our 
berths.  The  operation  of  eating  meals  next  day 
was  of  the  nature  of  an  acrobatic  performance. 
I  wish  I  could  reproduce  here  a  picture  I  have 
in  my  mind's  eye  of  a  certain  respected  member 
of  the  New  York  Yacht  Club,  with  a  couple  of 
fried  eggs  in  his  lap  and  half-a-pint  of  coffee  in 
his  ample  bosom.  Yes,  those  were  the  largest 
rolls  some  of  us  had  ever  had  for  breakfast — 
much  too  large,  in  fact,  for  comfortable  digestion. 
Speaking  of  rolls  reminds  me  that,  the  first 
day  we  were  on  the  Amazon,  someone  got  off  a 
joke  on  our  chief  jokesmith.  He  was  very  fond 
of  rolls  and  not  unwilling  to  teach  the  cook  how 
to  get  them  just  right  (as  he  was  always  willing, 
and  indeed  almost  always  able,  to  teach  anybody 
anything).  He  was  therefore  much  concerned 

219 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

when  it  was  intimated  to  him  that  we  should  not 
have  any  more  rolls  for  breakfast  for  three  or 
four  weeks.  "Why?"  he  demanded;  and  there 
was  in  his  tone  a  full  confidence  in  his  ability  to 
remedy  the  trouble,  whatever  it  might  be,  and 
to  assure  the  due  daily  forthcoming  of  excellent 
breakfast  rolls.  It  was  then  pointed  out  to  him 
that  there  would  be  no  rolls  because  we  were 
now  in  calm  water  and  the  yacht  would  do  no 
rolling  for  a  month. 

The  joke  was  perhaps  not  a  very  brilliant 
one  ;  but  it  was  good  fun  to  see  the  great  joke- 
smith's  expression  when  his  question  was  an- 
swered and  a  roar  of  derision  from  the  whole 
company  greeted  him.  This  was  the  only  time 
we  ever  caught  him  napping  during  the  cruise. 

But  we  did  have  rolls  on  the  river,  all  the  same 

—and  of  both  sorts.     The  day  we  came  back  to 

Para  from  the  island  of  Maraj6,  there  was  a  high 

wind  and  the  water  was  rough  enough  to  make 

the  yacht  dance  considerably. 


220 


JAMAICA 

T  TEAVY  seas  continued  to  follow  us  during 
•*•  the  next  two  days  and  we  were  very  glad, 
at  sunset  on  the  i4th,  to  catch  the  first  glimpse 
of  the  mountain-tops  of  Jamaica,  and  crawl  up 
under  the  lee  of  this  majestic  island,  where  we 
could  once  more  keep  an  even  keel  and  an  even 
temper. 

We  steamed  gaily  along  the  Southern  coast, 
enjoying  the  balmy,  starlit  night,  and  watching 
with  interest  the  changing,  shadowy  contours  of 
the  mountains  and  the  gleam  of  an  occasional 
light  or  cluster  of  lights  near  the  shore  or  far  up 
on  the  hillside.  At  9  o'clock  in  the  evening,  we 
were  off  the  curious  hook  of  land  that  forms  the 
fine  harbor  of  Kingston.  Here  we  lay  to  and 
made  all  sorts  of  signals  for  a  pilot;  but  the 
pilots  either  didn't  or  wouldn't  see  or  hear,  and 
we  had  to  lie  outside  all  night.  Early  in  the 
morning,  we  got  into  the  harbor  and,  after  a 

221 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

short  delay  with  the  health  officers,  were  per- 
mitted to  land. 

We  were  charmed  with  the  grandiose  massiv- 
ity  and  picturesque  lines  of  the  mountains,  and 
pleased  to  find  ourselves  in  such  a  fine  harbor 
among  so  many  large  and  important  ships.  The 
latter,  by  the  way,  were  nearly  all  flying  the  Brit- 
ish flag.  Indeed,  throughout  our  cruise,  we  en- 
countered British  shipping  everywhere,  and  it 
was  a  matter  of  continual  remark  and  regret  on 
the  yacht  that  we  seemed  to  be  almost  the  only 
vessel  carrying  the  stars  and  stripes  on  the  vast 
tropical  seas.  We  were  the  second  one  to  carry 
them  above  Para  on  the  Amazon.  Very  fre- 
quently and  very  fervidly  did  certain  patriotic 
souls  among  us  denounce  the  nefarious  influ- 
ences and  practices  which  have  arrested  and  con- 
tinue to  arrest  the  development  of  American 
shipbuilding  and  shipping. 

The  city  of  Kingston  disappointed  us.  It  is 
surprisingly  extensive,  but  we  found  it  arid  and 
dusty  and,  apparently,  not  very  clean.  Its  stores 
and  houses  have  an  old,  worn  appearance,  and 

222 


A  PLANTATION   IN  THE   BLUE   MOUNTAINS,   JAMAICA 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

it  has  but  little  architectural  attractiveness. 
Trees  we  saw  in  plenty,  and  yet  missed  the 
ubiquitous  verdure  of  the  other  island  cities 
we  had  just  visited.  The  type  of  Negroes  who 
swarm  in  Kingston  struck  us  as  being  coarser 
and  rougher  than  the  types  of  the  Leeward 
and  Windward  Islands.  However,  we  did  not 
see  Kingston  at  its  best.  It  was  Sunday  when 
we  landed  there,  and  the  whole  city  was  shut  up 
with  the  Puritanical  rigor  of  an  English  country 
town. 

But  if  Kingston  is  not  remarkable  for  beauty, 
its  environs  are  altogether  enchanting.  Some 
of  our  party,  determined  to  make  the  most  of 
the  few  hours  we  were  to  spend  here,  secured 
the  best  vehicle  and  the  fastest  pair  of  horses 
that  could  be  had,  and  made  a  dash  for  the 
abounding  glories  of  Nature  that  beckoned  to 
us  from  the  hills  and  valleys  beyond  the  city. 
There,  among  the  acclivitous  gorges  and  tumb- 
ling cascades,  we  experienced  the  sensation  of 
coming  under  the  benignant  spell  of  tropical 
scenery  with  a  new  note  in  it — the  note  of  rug- 

225 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

gedness — and  the  effect  on  us  was  an  instant 
invigoration  and  exhilaration. 

An  additional  charm  is  added  to  this  mag- 
nificent scenery  by  the  fact  that  even  the  most 
rugged  slopes,  the  wildest,  most  unlikely-looking 


THE  END  OF  THE  CARRIAGE  ROAD,  BLUE  MOUNTAINS, 
JAMAICA 

steeps,  harbor  and  guard,  with  their  natural 
growth  of  mountain  trees  and  shrubs,  groves  of 
choice  orange-trees  and  plantations  of  banana- 
palms  and  coffee-shrubs. 

226 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

We  went  as  far  as  the  carriage-road  would 
take  us,  and  would  fain  have  transferred  our 
persons  to  the  backs  of  mules,  to  be  borne 
to  the  summer  station  several  thousand  feet 
higher  up.  But  you  have  to  have  both  the  time 
and  the  money  to  do  pleasant  things  in  this  fes- 
tive world,  and  in  the  present  case,  though  we 
did  for  once  possess  the  price,  the  necessary 
hours  were  not  at  our  disposal ;  for  the  briny 
deep  was  calling,  calling  to  the  Commodore, 
and  the  Commodore  was  calling,  calling  to  the 
rest  of  us. 

But  Jamaica  was  another  land  that  we  left 
with  a  feeling  of  regret,  with  a  sense  that  we 
were  abandoning,  perhaps  for  ever,  a  little  world 
of  scarcely  tasted  delights,  of  uninvestigated  joys. 


227 


THE    DRY   TORTUGAS 

A   LONG   DETOUR   FOR   SOME    FISHING 

We  were  pilotea  out  of  the  harbor  in  the  late 
afternoon,  and,  after  a  couple  of  hours,  again  ran 
into  heavy  seas,  which  continued  to  knock  us 
about  wofully  for  nearly  three  days,  except  dur- 
ing a  few  hours  when  we  were  running  along 
under  the  lee  of  the  southwest  coast  of  Cuba. 

We  were  bound  for  the  Dry  Tortugas,  a  group 
of  coral  reefs,  mere  spots  on  the  ocean,  the  lo- 
cation of  an  old  United  States  fort.  Our  object 
in  going  to  this  place  was  to  try  the  fishing.  An 
old  friend  of  our  host's  had  repeatedly  stated  to 
him  that  the  fishing  there  was  the  most  varied 
and  exciting  to  be  had  anywhere.  Now,  all  de- 
grees of  scepticism  are  permissible  in  relation 
to  other  men's  fish  stones,  and  our  host  was  not 
going  to  let  such  a  little  matter  as  the  fact  that 
the  Dry  Tortugas  lay  four  or  five  hundred  miles 
off  his  course  deter  him  from  going  there  to  find 
out  for  himself  whether  his  friend  had  told  the 
truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the 

228 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

truth  about  that  fishing.  So  thither  we  went, 
and  gladly,  too ;  for  not  everyone  can  say  he 
has  been  to  the  Dry  Tortugas. 


A  FEAT  IN   NAVIGATION 

In  steering  for  these  lonely  little  keys,  we 
executed  quite  a  remarkable  piece  of  navigation. 
Nobody  on  the  yacht  had  ever  been  there  be- 
fore. The  current  in  these  waters  is  strong  and 
tricky,  unstable  and  hard  to  calculate.  The 
morning  of  the  day  we  were  to  arrive  at  the 
fort  was  very  cloudy  and  misty,  and  we  could 
get  no  sun  observation.  Soon  after  midday,  the 
Commodore  went  on  the  bridge  and  asked  one 
of  the  officers  (two  of  whom  were  peering  vainly 
through  their  binoculars  into  the  mist)  how  far 
away  he  supposed  we  were. 

"According  to  our  reckoning,"  was  the  reply, 
"  we're  there:  we've  just  arrived.  But  we  can't 
see  anything." 

Thereupon  the  order  "  Half-speed  ahead " 
was  telegraphed  to  the  engine  room. 

229 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

Just  then  the  mist  began  to  lift,  and  five  or 
ten  minutes  later,  not  half  a  mile  away  and  di- 
rectly in  a  line  with  our  bow,  the  lighthouse 


AMONG  THE  BAHAMA  KEYS 

of  the  Dry  Tortugas  seemed  to  spring  up  out  of 
the  sea,  or  drop  from  the  sky. 

"  I  reckon  that  was  a  pretty  good  reckon  of 
yours,"  said  the  Commodore  to  the  officers. 
"  I  congratulate  you." 

230 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


A  DAY'S   SPORT 

The  rest  of  that  day  was  misty  and  disagree- 
able, but  the  following  day  was  as  perfect  as 
anything  one  could  wish  or  dream  in  the  way  of 
weather. 

We  organized  a  fishing  expedition  and,  duly 
guided  by  expert  fishermen  of  the  Keys,  went 
in  a  couple  of  boats  to  the  outer  ledge  of  the 
coral  bank  three  or  four  miles  away  from  our 
anchorage.  There  we  had  very  good  sport, 
landing  exactly  fifty  good-sized  fish,  mostly 
grouper,  merchant-fish,  hog-fish,  and  yellow-tail. 
Unfortunately  it  was  not  the  right  season  for 
tarpon.  Our  host  admitted  that  there  cer- 
tainly were  some  fish  on  those  coral  ledges,  but 
he  can't  quite  make  up  his  mind  even  now 
whether  his  friend  told  him  the  whole  truth  and 
nothing  more  than  the  truth  on  this  piscatorial 
subject. 


231 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 


THE  FIFTY-POUND  FISH  WE  DIDN'T  CATCH 

An  amusing  incident  occurred  in  connection 
with  our  fishing  preoccupations  here.  And  (as 
in  the  case  of  the  fish  story  I  have  told  some 
pages  back)  for  the  reason  that  I  myself  did  not 
catch  the  fish  in  question — indeed,  I  was  per- 
haps mainly,  though  inadvertently,  instrumental 
in  preventing  his  being  caught — in  relating  it, 
I  can  ask  my  readers  not  to  call  or  even  to  think 
me  a  fish  liar.  At  the  breakfast  table  on  the 
morning  of  the  excursion  just  referred  to,  the 
conversation  was  distinctly — I  was  going  to  say 
fishy,  but  that  is  an  adjective  of  too  many  mean- 
ings, natural  and  acquired — so  I  will  say,  the 
conversation  turned  mainly  on  the  topic  of  fish 
and  fishing.  We  all  told  (and  some  of  us,  I 
think,  really  believed  what  we  related)  of  the 
fish  we  had  caught,  of  the  fish  we  had  almost 
caught,  of  the  fish  we  ought  to  have  caught,  of 
the  fish  we  would  yet  catch,  and  of  the  fish  the 
other  fellow  couldn't  catch.  When  we  had  fully 

232 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

expressed  our  souls  in  this  connection,  an  old 
fisherman  of  our  party  (a  fisher  of  men,  too!) 
lifted  up  his  voice  and  spake  in  this  wise  : 

"  Look  here,  boys.  Here's  a  sporting  offer 
for  you.  We'll  be  in  Havana  in  a  day  or  two, 
and  Havana  is  a  place  where  you  can  spend  all 
the  money  you  can  lay  hands  on.  Now  I'll  give 
you  a  chance  to  earn  easy  pocket  money  for  use 
in  that  estimable  city.  I'll  give  ten  cents  a 
pound  for  every  fish  or  fishes  weighing  individ- 
ually more  than  fifty  pounds  that  any  of  you 
may  catch  and  bring  to  me  during  our  stay 
here." 

The  offer  was  received  with  loud  acclamation, 
and  we  went  off  with  added  enthusiasm  to  our 
day's  labor  of  love — of  fish-love.  Our  hopes  were 
raised  high  when,  on  our  way  to  the  outer  ledge, 
we  saw  sticking  out  of  the  water  for  an  instant 
what  we  took  to  be  the  fore-arm  or  the  hind-leg 
of  a  species  of  sea-monster  that  perambulates  in 
these  parts.  The  day  before,  we  had  been  en- 
tertained by  tales  told  us  at  the  fort  of  the  great 
size  and  prodigious  strength  of  these  monsters. 

233 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

We  had  been  assured  that,  on  a  certain  occasion, 
one  of  them  had  picked  up  the  anchor  of  a 
vessel  and  swum  off  with  it  and  the  vessel  for 
several  miles.  We  began  to  speculate  how 
much  this  fellow  that  we  now  saw,  if  he  were 
really  of  this  species,  would  weigh,  and  how 
much  pocket-money  for  Havana  he  would  run 
into  at  ten  cents  a  pound  ;  also,  as  to  who  should 
get  the  money,  or  whether  it  ought  to  be 
divided.  Some  one  suggested  that  the  maker 
of  the  offer  (who  had  stayed  on  the  yacht  with 
the  fifth  volume  of  a  Portuguese  novel)  might 
contend  that  this  was  not  a  fish — and  we  nearly 
threw  the  fellow  overboard  for  thinking  such 
thoughts.  He  was  a  plump  young  Yale  graduate, 
and  would  have  added  about  180  pounds  to  the 
weight  of  that  monster,  or  say,  $18  to  the  value 
thereof  ;  so  that  we  should  not  have  been  with- 
out justification  for  feeding  him  to  the  big  ugly 
thing.  But  we  reflected  that  he  (the  young 
man)  might  some  day  have  a  wife  and  family, 
and  we  remembered  that  he  was  a  natural  wit, 
and  so  we  abstained  from  sacrificing  him.  We 

234 


TEN  THOUSAND    MTLES    IN  A  YACHT 

waited  about  patiently  for  the  monster  to  indi- 
cate his  presence  again,  but  alas  !  he  showed  up 
nevermore. 

Later  in  the  day,  our  high  hopes  began  to 
sink  somewhat,  as  we  realized  that  it  takes  quite 
a  large  fish  to  weigh  fifty  pounds.  We  were  en- 
couraged, however,  on  learning  that  there  were 
plenty  of  sharks  in  the  neighborhood,  and  we 
determined  to  make  a  bold  bid  that  evening  for 
a  good  sized  member  of  this  unprepossessing 
tribe.  So  we  put  out  from  the  stern  of  the 
yacht  a  couple  of  very  strong  lines  with  large 
steel  hooks  attractively  baited.  The  whole 
crew  had  got  wind  of  the  ten  cents  a  pound  offer, 
and  those  lines  over  the  stern  were  glanced  at 
from  time  to  time  by  many  a  pair  of  eager  eyes. 
It  was  noticed  that  X.  did  not  perform  on  the 
pianola  that  evening ;  that  Y.  gave  up  develop- 
ing photographs  ;  and  that  Z.  omitted  his  usual 
after-dinner  game  of  solitaire.  The  crew 
wanted  the  money  for  the  money's  sake  ;  the 
rest  of  us  wanted  the  fun  of  making  the  donor 
pay  heavily  for  his  rash  offer. 

235 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


Suddenly  a  mighty  splash  was  heard  off  the 
stern,  and  in  a  few  seconds  the  whole  population 
of  the  yacht — guests,  officers  and  crew — had 

gathered  on  the 
after-deck,  as 
though  they  had 
been  summoned 
there  by  a  fire- 
alarm.  Everyman- 
jack  aboard  knew 
that  a  shark,  weigh- 
ing perhaps  a  hun- 
dred-weight or  two 
over  the  prescribed 
fifty  pounds,  had 
hooked  himself. 
The  chief  officer 
took  command  and 

directed  the  playing  of  the  line.  Two  of  us 
rushed  for  rifles.  The  fisher  of  men,  who  had 
made  the  rash  offer,  put  down  the  sixth  vol- 
ume of  his  Portuguese  novel  and  paled  visibly 
through  his  tropical  tan  and  his  five  days' 

236 


THE  INSTIGATOR  OF  THIS  COMMOTION 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES  IN  A  YACHT 

beard.  Thrice  the  shark  was  hauled  to  the 
surface.  Some  said  he  was  15  feet  long;  some 
said  he  was  13  feet;  as  I  hope  for  salvation,  I 
will  again  be  truthful — I  believe  he  measured 
about  9  feet  6  inches.  The  second  time  he  came 
up,  one  of  the  men  who  had  rushed  for  rifles 
was  there  to  receive  him.  Why  should  I  be 
modest  ?  It  was  my  noble  self.  A  bullet  in 
the  neck  persuaded  the  shark  to  go  below  again 
and  he  nearly  took  two  able  seamen  with  him  in 
his  rapid-transit  movement  downwards.  Quite 
a  lot  of  line  was  slowly  played  out,  and  we  be- 
gan to  fear  he  would  take  all  we  had,  when  he 
ceased  pulling,  and  we  were  able  gradually  to 
wind  him  back  again.  At  his  third  appearance 
on  the  surface,  he  received  two  more  bullets  from 
the  Winchester  of  the  rifleman  aforesaid,  the 
second  of  which  drew  a  spurt  of  blood.  Then 
came  dire  catastrophe.  The  last  shot  had  just 
made  its  mark,  when  the  crack  of  another  gun 
split  my  right  eardrum  and  I  felt  a  cold  rifle- 
barrel  on  my  right  cheek.  The  valiant  Q.  (I 
won't  give  him  away  altogether)  had  arrived  with 

237 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

his  fear-inspiring  38  calibre,  and  leaning  its  bar- 
rel confidingly  on  my  shoulder,  had  sent  his 
bullet,  too,  to  do  its  billet.  The  billet  of  that 
bullet  and  the  undesired  blowing-off  of  my  right 
ear  came  very  nearly  being  one  and  the  same 
thing.  At  that  instant  the  line  in  the  hands  of  the 
able  seamen  parted,  and  the  shark  disappeared 
with  the  short  end  of  it.  A  howl  of  rage  and  de- 
spair went  up  from  forty  throats,  and  impreca- 
tions deep  and  loud  were  flung  at  the  valiant  Q. 
He  was  accused  of  having  missed  the  shark  and 
cut  the  line  with  his  bullet !  Poor  Q.  !  his  life 
was  not  worth  living  for  the  next  day  or  two. 
Personally,  I  don't  believe  he  was  guilty  of  the 
crime  of  which  he  was  accused.  As  a  competi- 
tor with  him  for  the  honor  of  doing  that  shark 
to  death,  and  as  one  utterly  without  prejudice,  I 
am  bound  to  say  I  am  of  opinion  that  Q.'s  bullet 
did  not  touch  the  line  at  all.  True,  it  did  not 
enter  the  shark's  head,  for  which  it  was  aimed, 
but  I  could  swear  it  nevertheles  did  hit  the 
animal,  very  hard — in  the  tail  !  The  fact  was 
that  the  third  bullet  the  shark  received,  the  one 

238 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES   IN  A  YACHT 

that  brought  blood,  tickled  him  in  such  a  sensi- 
tive spot  that  he  gave  a  violent  lunge  and  twist 
and  simply  snapped  the  line. 

While  everyone  was  unjustly  villifying  Q.,  I 
caught  a  glimpse  of  the  gentleman  who  had 
offered  the  prize-money.  He  was  doubled  up 
in  a  very  convulsion  of  diabolical  merriment. 
He  was  having  the  time  of  his  life — that  is  to 
say,  one  of  the  times  of  his  life.  (He  has  had 
others,  being  built  that  way.) 

We  set  more  lines,  thick  rope  lines,  that  night, 
and  in  the  small  hours  of  the  morning  another 
big  shark  hooked  himself.  Two  of  the  watch 
played  him  for  a  minute  or  two,  but  he  snapped 
the  copper  wire  with  which  the  hook  was  fastened 
to  the  line  and  went  off,  doubtless  with  the  bait 
pinned  to  the  lining  of  his  alimentary  canal. 
Thus  vanished  our  hopes  of  catching  a  fifty- 
pound  fish  in  the  sunny  waters  of  the  Dry  Tortu- 
gas.  "  Vanity  of  vanities,  saith  the  preacher — ." 


239 


HAVANA 

EAVING  the  Dry  Tortugas  soon  after  daylight, 
^^  we  ran  across  to  Havana,  arriving  in  the 
early  afternoon.  Here  we  spent  two  very  en- 
joyable days.  For  the  first  time  in  nine  or  ten 
weeks,  we  felt  that  we  were  in  the  rush  and  swirl 
of  an  active,  important,  prosperous,  luxurious, 
commercial  city,  and  that  we  were  again  in  very 
close  touch  with  the  United  States. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  describe  a  city  which  has 
been  so  often  depicted  in  recent  years.  It  is 
enough  here  to  say  that  Havana,  with  its  fine 
squares  and  avenues,  its  picturesque  old  build- 
ings and  fine  modern  business  edifices  and  villas, 

240 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

its  magnificent  shops  and  their  fascinating  dis- 
plays of  rich  and  beautiful  things,  its  extensive 
land-locked  harbor,  its  suave,  sunny,  balmy, 
tonic  atmosphere,  and  its  attractive  drive  round 


THE  PLAZA  DE  ARMA,   HAVANA 

the  sea-front — always  thronged  just  before  sun- 
set with  good-looking  types  of  men  and  dark- 
eyed,  handsome  women  on  horseback  or  driving 
in  carriages  or  open  cabs — is  an  extremely  at- 
tractive place.  The  city  has  the  appearance,  at 
any  rate,  of  almost  perfect  cleanliness.  Amer- 
icans are  encountered  at  every  turn,  and  the 

243 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

American  influence  is  manifest  in  the  whole  life 
of  the  community, 

Cuba  certainly  has  a  great  future  before  it, 
and  Havana  is  destined  to  become  a  much-fre- 
quented winter  resort  for  well-to-do  Americans. 

Our  host  marvelled  at  the  vast  changes  which 
had  taken  place  since  his  last  visit  to  Havana  on 
the  Oneida  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  rebellion, 
when  the  Cuban  flag  and  the  Cuban  bond  rep- 
resented little  more  than  a  patriotic  sentiment. 
But  now  the  flag  waved  at  the  fore  of  the  yacht 
and  the  bonds  were  at  a  large  premium. 


THE  PRADO.  HAVANA 
244 


NASSAU 

Bancroft 

T3  IDDING  good-bye  to  Havana  late  in  the  after- 
^"^  noon  of  January  22d,  we  had  a  very  pleas- 
ant run  through  calm,  clear  waters  and  among 
pretty  coral  keys  to  Nassau,  which  is  the  capital 
and  seat  of  government  of  the  British  Bahama 
Islands,  but  is  better  known  as  a  famous  Amer- 
ican winter  resort.  Nassau,  too,  has  been  so 
often  described  and  is  so  well  known  that  I  will 
not  say  much  about  its  natural  beauties.  New 
Providence,  the  island  of  which  Nassau  is  the 
city,  is  a  coral  island,  like  Bermuda,  and  it  has 
something  of  the  same  charm  as  that  happy 
little  land,  only  the  charm  of  New  Providence, 

245 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 


GRAPE-FRUIT  TREES,  NASSAU 


I  think,  is  greater.  Here  there  is  less  agricul- 
ture, more  wild  growth,  a  richness  of  vegetation 
more  tropical,  an  atmosphere  more  luminous 

and  caressing, 
and  the  incred- 
ible coloring  of 
the  sea —  the 
light  blue  and 
the  dark  blue 
streaking  the 
bay  so  curiously 
—exercise  a  con- 
tinual beneficent  enchantment  over  the  mind. 
It  is  good  to  be  alive  in  Nassau ;  there,  breath- 
ing is  a  joy,  walking  is  a  joy,  driving  is  a  joy, 
swimming  is  a  joy,  and  eating  the  luscious  fruit, 
that  everywhere  weighs  the  branches  of  the 
trees  literally  to  the  ground,  is — well,  almost  an 
ecstasy.  The  gentle,  naive,  care-free,  happy-go- 
lucky,  cleanly  Negroes  who  make  up  the  bulk 
of  the  population  are  an  element  in  the  interest 
which  any  visitor  with  an  eye  for  the  pictur- 
esque cannot  fail  to  feel  for  this  beautiful  little 
country. 

246 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

Here,  only  three  and  a  half  days  from  New 
York,  where  zero  weather  was  being  registered, 
we  went  about  in  the  lightest  of  summer  gar- 
ments, and  bathed  in  the  transparent  water  of 


A   VILLAGE  STREET,    NEAR  NASSAU 

the  bay  for  an  hour  at  a  time.  Gladly  would 
we  have  remained  in  Nassau  until  overcoat-time 
in  New  York  was  past  and  done  with.  But  that 
was  three  months  away,  we  had  already  been 

247 


TEN   THOUSAND  MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

absent  nearly  three  months,  and  the  imperious 
summons  back  to  work,  back  to  the  daily  battle 


A  CORAL  ROAD,  NEAR  NASSAU 

for  bread  (and  honey)  was  becoming  more  and 
more  insistent. 

Our  departure  from  this,  the  last  port  before 
the  home  port,  was  therefore  fixed  for  the  fore- 
noon of  January  26th.  Early  that  morning, 
Nassau  began  to  show  us  what  it  could  do  in 

248 


TEN   THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

the  way  of  a  gale,  and  by  the  time  we  were 
ready  to  weigh  anchor,  the  wind  was  raging  so, 
and  the  sea  was  so  tossed,  that  the  pilots  had 
some  doubt  as  to  whether  they  could  get  us 
safely  out  of  the  harbor.  After  a  conference, 
however,  it  was  decided  that  we  could  get  out 
all  right.  We  made  the  attempt  and  succeeded, 
but  we  had  to  climb  over  some  steepish  waves 
to  do  it. 


SHIPPING  A  WAVE,   ON  THE  WAY 
FROM    NASSAU 


249 


BACK  TO  "LITTLE  OLD  NEW  YORK" 

H  "^HEN  for  a  couple  of  days  we  had  such  weather 
as  would  make  a  crew  of  angels  use  very 
frequent  and  forceful  cuss  words.  Even  the 
Commodore  said  he  didn't  like  it.  Naturally,  we 
expected  all  sorts  of  trouble  off  Cape  Hatteras. 
But,  curiously  enough,  when  we  got  there,  the 
sea  was  as  smooth  as — as  Standard  oil,  and  it 
remained  so  until  we  reached  the  packed  ice- 
floes of  New  York  harbor  in  the  small  hours  of 
the  morning  of  January  3oth. 

We  had  sailed  just  short  of  10,000  miles,  and 
had  been  absent  76  days. 

Leaving  the  yacht  with  all  one's  effects,  after 
she  had  been  our  floor  and  our  roof,  our  bed 
and  our  board  for  so  many  weeks,  was  like  break- 
ing up  one's  happy  home.  But  the  welcoming 
embrace  of  dear  relations,  the  warm  hand-clasps 
of  close  friends,  the  brightness  and  cheer  of  the 
big  theatres,  the  new  volumes  at  the  book-stores, 

250 


TEN  THOUSAND    MILES    IN  A  YACHT 

the  freshness  of  old  familiar  scenes,  the  grace  of 
the  pretty  forms  and  faces  that  one  encountered 
everywhere,  and  the  oyster-stews  that  were  wait- 
ing for  one  in  the  middle  Fifth  Avenue  neigh- 
borhood, were  compensations  not  to  be  despised. 
The  best  part  of  going  away  is  coming  back. 

O,  but  it  was  a  great  trip ! 

"  I  hear  you  went  on  that  Amazon  cruise," 
said  a  sportsman  acquaintance  of  mine  soon 
after  our  return. 

I  admitted  the  soft  impeachment. 

"Lucky  dog!"  he  commented.  "Why,  that 
was  a  thousand  to  one  chance!" 

He  was  right.     That's  about  what  it  was. 

Not  one,  I  think,  of  the  ten  guests  who  ac- 
companied Commodore  Benedict  over  those  ten 
thousand  miles,  has  any  lively  hope  of  ever 
being  able  to  set  out  on  a  more  interesting,  a 
more  uncommon,  or  a  more  wonderful  voyage. 


253 


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